ARBIL, Iraq, Oct 3 (AFP) - 16h51 - Iraq's President Jalal Talabani and fellow Kurdish leader Massud Barzani have warned Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari his high-handed running of the government is jeopardizing their support.

"If you do not quickly resolve (these) problems, it will affect our alliance," the Kurdish leaders said in a letter sent to Jaafari, Mullah Bakhtiar, a senior member of Talibani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, told reporters Monday.

"We have sent a joint delegation to Baghdad for talks with Jaafari's government about our grievances," Bakhtiar said.

Jaafari, who heads the Shiite-led governmental coalition, has failed to keep to agreements made with Kurdish allies, he added.

Talabani and Barzani outlined 16 points of disagreement with the premier, ranging from failing to keep meetings with the president and parliamentary speaker, to appointing top civil servants without the consent of coalition partners, to packing government delegations on trips abroad with ministers from his own party.

They also accused him of not giving their semi-autonomous Kurdish region its rightful share of economic development projects.

"If Jaafati continues down this road, I think we'll hit a dead end," Bakhtiar said.

A simmering row between Talabani and Jaafari erupted when both insisted they should lead an Iraqi delegation travelling to the United States and to the United Nations in New York last month.

Jaafari said Sunday he refused to become embroiled in a row with Talabani who had last week accused him during a press conference of exceeding his authority.

"Like you, I heard (Talabani's comments) but I haven't got time to respond," Jaafari said.

"My time is taken up running the executive branch of the government. I will express myself forcefully when the time is right," he added.

Talabani and Barzani, the president of northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish zone, have also accused the Shiite-led government of reneging on an agreement to reinstall Kurds in the disputed northern city of Kirkuk, the target of years of Arabisation under deposed leader Saddam Hussein.

The political tensions in Baghdad's corridors of power surfaced with barely two weeks to go before the country votes on a new post-Saddam constitution written largely by representatives of the Shiite majority and its Kurdish allies in parliament.

The October 15 vote on the draft constitution is seen as a key milestone in Iraq's political transition following Saddam's ouster in April 2003, and is due to be followed by fresh elections in December.