ARBIL, (Southern Kurdistan), Dec 9, 2007 (AFP) - The prime minister of the
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) said Sunday he will travel to Baghdad in a
bid to resolve a dispute over his administration's controversial foreign oil
deals.
Nechirvan Barzani said he will meet the central Iraqi government's top leaders
in the next two days to thrash out a solution to the oil dispute and the issue
of Kirkuk that have sparked tension between the regional and central
governments.
"I will go to Baghdad with a big Kurdish delegation to discuss issues related to
oil deals and Kirkuk," he told reporters.
Baghdad is furious at the Kurdistan Regional government's approval of several
oil deals with foreign companies, which have been agreed in advance of the
establishment of a central government national oil law.
Oil Minister Hussein Shahristani recently said all such deals signed by the
regional government with foreign companies stand cancelled as the Iraqi
parliament has yet to pass the draft oil law.
Barzani's administration has dismissed Shahristani's warnings, saying the deals
comply with the regional constitution and benefit the whole of Iraq.
The Kurdish regional government has signed 15 oil contracts with 20 foreign
companies to explore and export oil discovered in the Kurdish region.
The separate issue of the oil city of Kirkuk has also increased tensions. A
referendum due to be held before the end of 2007 on whether to incorporate the
oil-rich city into the KRG looks unlikely to take place.
A referendum to determine the future of the city, which sits on the
second-largest oil and gas reserves in Iraq, was to have been held before the
end of the year but officials acknowledge there is too little time left.
