Iraq's President Fuad Masum is refusing to approve the 2018 budget because of "legal and constitutional violations", his legal adviser told Reuters on Tuesday.

The long-delayed budget was passed by parliament on March 3, but Kurdish lawmakers boycotted the vote in protest over their region's diminished allocation. Masum is a Kurd and holds a largely ceremonial role in the Iraqi state where most power lies with the prime minister who belongs to the Shi’ite Muslim majority.

"We are sending it (the budget) back to the parliament to amend the legal and constitutional violations we pointed out," Amir al-Kenany said.