Kurds Close Ranks in Bid to Secure Federation From Elected Iraqi Assembly

A key task of the elected national assembly will be to draw up a permanent constitution for the new Iraq, in which they hope to enshrine autonomy for Iraqi Kurdistan in the north of the country.

"The Kurds have forgotten their differences to defend the common interest," said Salahuddin Bahaeddin, head of one of the 17 factions that signed the election accord announced on Wednesday, the Kurdistan Islamic Union.

"The formation of this list became a necessity after our Shiite brothers formed their own," said Bahaeddin, referring to the joint list being backed by Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq's top Shiite Muslim religious leader.

The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistancontrolled north Iraq in defiance of Saddam Hussein from 1991 until last year's US-led invasion, which toppled the dictator whose regime gassed the Kurds.

After historic Kurdish elections in the north in 1992, the two factions agreed on a 50-50 power-sharing arrangement.

But their rivalry degenerated into open warfare, especially over the sharing of tax revenue, with more than 3,000 people killed between 1994 and 1999 in clashes between their peshmerga fighters.

The two parties set up their own government, splitting the region into a KDP-run area west and along the Turkish border while the PUK controlled the eastern region along the border with Iran.

Announcing the joint list, KDP leader Massud Barzani said "the Kurdish political powers have reached an agreement to present a single list for the general elections as well as for the Kurdish parliament".

He was speaking from his Salahuddin mountain stronghold in northern Iraq after meeting PUK chief Jalal Talabani.

"We call on the people of Kurdistan to participate in the elections as we need every single vote to obtain as many seats as possible in the Iraqi national assembly," said Talabani.

"The current situation obliges us to put the future of Kurdistan before our own individual interests and join the same list to guarantee the rights of the Kurdish people in Iraq," Barzani added.

On January 30, Iraqis are due to choose the 275 members of the national assembly. The Kurds will also pick the 111 members of their autonomous parliament.

Talabani urged "the people of Kurdistan to take part in the ballot, because we need every vote we can get in order to obtain the largest possible number of seats in parliament."

When asked why the two Kurdish political heavyweights had not joined forces with some Arab parties, Talabani hinted that none of them were ready to boost Kurdish aspirations toward more autonomy.

"We were not able to find an agreement on the place of the Kurds," he said.

Kurds represent some 20 percent of Iraq's mainly Arab population. Their region has been spared much of the violence that has followed the March 2003 invasion, which the Kurds staunchly supported.

Kurdish leaders have since exerted simultaneous efforts to grab key positions in the central government while backing every move towards increasing their autonomy.