October 19, 2007 | By Sharon Behn

Kurdish leaders said yesterday the United States is obliged by a U.N. resolution to defend them in the event that Turkish forces invade northern Iraq in pursuit of members of a Kurdish rebel movement.

They also said they will continue to sign oil contracts with international companies while awaiting passage of an Iraqi oil law, despite objections from Baghdad and the State Department.

"The U.S. forces are mandated by the United Nations to protect Iraq's sovereignty and defend Iraq's people," said Qubad Talabani, the Kurdistan Regional Government's representative in Washington.

But Mr. Talabani, who was accompanied by the head of the Kurdistan government's foreign relations department, said he is worried the United States might not fulfill that commitment.

"We would like stronger reassurances by the United States that they would defend the Iraqi people, be it in the south, north or center, if they were threatened in any way," Mr. Talabani told editors and reporters at The Washington Times.

The officials likely referenced Security Council Resolution 1546, which gives multinational forces in Iraq the authority "to take all necessary measures to contribute to the maintenance of security and stability in Iraq."

In an accompanying letter, then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said the international force will "undertake a broad range of tasks to contribute to the maintenance of security" in Iraq.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said at a later press conference that the United States wants to help end a wave of attacks inside Turkey, but there is a lack of solid information as to where the Kurdish rebels operate from.

Kurdistan claims the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, has splintered into a number of factions and that the militants staging attacks in Turkey are based in that country. The Turks claim the PKK — identified by the United States as a terrorist group — is operating from bases in northern Iraq.

"We want to help the Turks with the PKK," said Mr. Gates. "We recognize that Turks are being killed by this organization.

"It is partly a matter of intelligence and how specific the information we can get is. I think that if we were to come up with specific information, that we and the Iraqis would be prepared to do the appropriate thing."

Frustrated by constant PKK attacks, which have left 40,000 dead in the last 20 years, Turkey on Wednesday authorized its troops to cross into northern Iraq to hunt down the militants. Thousands of Kurds took to the streets yesterday to protest that decision, the Associated Press reported.

Ankara called on the United States to defuse the situation by detaining and extraditing PKK members from northern Iraq. But the United States has a very limited military presence in Kurdistan because of the relative security and stability in the region.

A State Department official said there has been no formal request from Turkey to arrest PKK members and noted that Washington has encouraged Turkey and Iraq to cooperate on the issue.

Mr. Talabani and Falah Mustafa Bakir, foreign relations minister in the regional government, warned that the economic and political haven that Kurdistan has provided in Iraq easily can be disrupted if Turkey invades.

"There will be dire consequences. This is the only safe and secure part of Iraq that is supporting the U.S. efforts," said Mr. Talabani, who is the son of Iraqi president Jalal Talabani.

Mr. Bakir said 80 percent of the large-scale investment in Kurdistan comes from Turkey, and that there are between 200 and 300 small, medium and large Turkish companies working in Kurdistan's public and private sector.

Any military incursion would probably cause those investors to leave, he said.

With its own government, security forces and controlled entry points, Kurdistan has pushed forward with its economic development while avoiding most of the ethnic, sectarian and criminal conflict that is killing thousands elsewhere in Iraq.

On Sept. 8, the regional government signed a production-sharing agreement with a subsidiary of Hunt Oil Co. of Dallas and Impulse Energy Corp. to explore for oil in the Kurdistan region of Duhuk. The deal was criticized this week by the State Department.

"Hunt Oil has been advised of U.S. policy urging companies not to sign oil contracts with the Kurdistan Regional Government until [an Iraqi] national oil law is passed, as well as the potential political and legal risks inherent in such a contract," spokesman Tom Casey said Tuesday.

But Mr. Talabani said Washington cannot expect Kurdistan just to sit on its hands. "Why should we be put on hold? This is a success story for Iraq. The United States should be pleased," he said.

He said his government will continue to sign contracts with any American companies that are interested. Kurdistan is "open for business," he said.