ARBIL, Iraq, June 11 (AFP) - 16h45 - Iraq's three autonomous Kurdish provinces were preparing on Saturday for the swearing-in of Massoud Barzani as the region's president, with his former rival Jalal Talabani already national president.Ahead of Sunday's ceremony, a festive atmosphere reigned on Arbil's streets which were bedecked with the green, white and red flags of Kurdistan, emblazoned with a yellow sun.

The ceremony for Barzani, son of the father of Kurdish nationalism Mullah Mustafa Barzani, will be attended by dignitaries from home and abroad.

"This ceremony marks the end of a long struggle for Kurdish rights," senior PUK member Kousrat Rassoul said after a Thursday meeting between Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

The two Kurdish parties are determined to give the day a flavour of unity, despite their previous acrimony.

Following the 1991 Gulf War, the two rivals fell out over power-sharing and tax revenues in the region and thousands died in ensuing fighting, with Barzani even calling in former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's forces to fight the PUK on his behalf.

The two sides then formed an alliance following Saddam's fall in April 2003, agreeing to defend their right to autonomy within a federal Iraq.

But it took the KDP and PUK four months after January's elections to reach agreement on who would hold the regional presidency, a decision that saw the 111-member Kurdish regional parliament finally opened in the city of Arbil, 350 kilometres (220 miles) north of Baghdad on June 4.

Barzani managed to obtain PUK support for his four-year regional tenure after his party helped Talabani become Iraq's first ever Kurdish president on April 7.

Party officials throughout the three Kurdish provinces of Sulaimaniyah, Arbil and Dohuk are under strict instructions only to show Kurdish flags and symbols and not those of their respective factions ahead of the unification of their two administrations.

Currently, the KDP controls Arbil while the PUK runs Sulaimaniyah.

"The Kurdish people are proud of Barzani's presidency," read one of many banners hung from public buildings.

One trader, Khaled Jamil, said he had sold half a million small Kurdish flags in recent days, while officials said festivities would be laid on in all government offices.

"This is an historic occasion, not only for Iraqi Kurds, but for all Kurds" in Turkey, Syria and Iran, said inhabitant Kamel Salar, 40, set to celebrate the event with family and neighbours.