There were threats of a boycott of parliament in what is the latest episode in a round of bickering over who should lead a government of national unity.
Mr Talabani, along with Kurdish, Sunni and secular factions, opposes the reselection by the Shiite United Iraqi Alliance (UIA) of current Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari to head the national unity government.
Mr Talabani wanted to convene Iraq’s parliament on Sunday but its opening has fallen victim to the high-stakes political gamesmanship.
Boycott threat
"The Alliance is going to ask for the opening of parliament to be delayed by a few days to allow for further talks between the parties," said Redha Jawad Taki, a spokesman for the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, the main Alliance party.
"If the president rejects this then we shall boycott the assembly's inaugural meeting."
Earlier, a top government official said one of the vice presidents, the
Shiite Adel Abdul Mahdi, had declined to sign the presidential council order for the assembly to meet.
All three members of the presidential council have to sign the order announcing the start of the parliament and Mr Mahdi had not yet signed for reasons best known to him, according to the official.
"Due to this there is a possibility that the parliament may not convene on March 12 as there is also a strong demand from the Shiite leaders to postpone it," he said.
The presidential council consists of Mr Talabani, Mr Mahdi and Vice President Ghazi al-Yawar, a Sunni.
Elected three months ago the parliamentary line-up highlights the deep national split along sectarian and ethnic lines with the UIA counting on the support of 130 of parliament's 275 MPs. But it does not have the necessary majority to rule alone.
The US has urged Shiite leaders to agree to a broad-based governmental coalition in a bid to win support from the Sunni minority and undermine its support for the insurgents.
Mr Talabani and others have accused Mr Jaafari of being too sectarian at a time when sectarian violence between majority Shiites and historically-dominant Sunnis is rising.
Hostage video
The dispute came amid increasing violence which saw at least 16 killed and in 18 attacks, eight of them car bombs.
And in the south of the country, an Iraqi security official accused British soldiers in Basra of shooting and wounding four Iraqis, among them police officers, after police tried to check their identification.
Meanwhile two Canadians and a Briton kidnapped in Iraq in January appeared in a new video message appealing for their release.
The hostage video was broadcast on Al-Jazeera and but it did not feature an American colleague who had been abducted with them.
In the port city of Basra, the council leader responsible for security matters said that British soldiers or agents in civilian dress had opened fire on Iraqi police who tried to stop them on Monday night.
After a chase and as police tried to surround one of the vehicles, the
occupants opened fire wounding four people, he added. British troops then arrived at the scene and helped their escape.
A British military spokesman said "there was no British military or civilian involvement in the initial incident", but he declined comment on whether British forces at any time had made use of their weapons.
In September, Iraqi police briefly detained two British soldiers working undercover in Basra before British troops forcibly released them.