Monday, January 7, 2008 | The Associated Press

BAGHDAD: Iraq's Kurdish deputy prime minister warned Monday that failure to resolve the dispute over the oil-rich city of Kirkuk could result in more strife in the war-ravaged country and accused unnamed parties in the government of preventing a solution.

"We have a choice," Barham Saleh told The Associated Press in an interview. "We can either turn Kirkuk into an example of national Iraqi unity ... or turn it into a battlefield for strife between the components of Iraq."

He said it was unacceptable to leave the dispute over Kirkuk unresolved and accused parties within the government of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of trying to stymie a solution spelled out in the 2005 constitution.

"I am a Kurd and see Kirkuk as part of the Kurdish region," Saleh said, explaining that because Arabs and Turkomen — the other two main ethnic groups inhabiting the city — see it differently, everyone must follow steps set out in the basic law to resolve the issue.

"Keeping the status quo is unacceptable," he said, "The government is obliged to resolve the issue through legal and constitutional channels."

Saleh, like President Jalal Talabani, is widely viewed as a moderate Kurd and his assertion that Kirkuk is part of the Kurdish region reflects a universal conviction among Kurds. But his charge that government parties were working against a solution in Kirkuk reflects tension between the Kurds and their close Shiite allies.

The Kurds and Shiites, who combine for about 80 percent of Iraq's population, have been close allies since Saddam's ouster in 2003, but recent Kurdish assertions of independence, like the conclusion of oil exploration deals with foreign companieswithout involving the central government, have led to harsh public exchanges between the two sides.

The constitution, which most of Iraq's Sunni Arabs voted against in a 2005 referendum, provides for the "normalization" of Kirkuk — allowing Kurds forcibly moved from the city under Saddam Hussein's "Arabization" program to return and inviting Arabs lured there decades ago by financial reward to leave in return for compensation.

A referendum to determine the fate of the city was scheduled to take place before the end of 2007, but it never took place and is now expected to be held in the first half of this year.

Kirkuk's Arab and Turkomen residents dispute the Kurdish claim to the city, which has over the past 4 1/2 years seen hundreds of deadly attacks with sectarian or ethnic motives.

The dispute over Kirkuk is a potentially dangerous issue.

Leaders of Iraq's Shiite majority fear allowing Kirkuk to join the Kurdish region could undermine their new status as the country's dominant power, while the once-dominant Sunni Arab minority sees the loss of the city as a prelude to the breakup of the nation along sectarian or ethnic lines.

"The political process in its entirety is facing serious problems and obstacles that prevent the government from carrying out its duties," Saleh said without specifics, but al-Maliki's 19-month-old government has been crippled by the protest withdrawal from the Cabinet of ministers belonging to major Shiite and Sunni blocs.

It also is widely seen to have made little progress on national reconciliation, failing to take advantage of a significant reduction in violence over the past six months.