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Kurdish regional leader invites Iraqi leaders to hold talks in Kurdistan

BAGHDAD, March 10, 2006 (AFP) - Kurdish politician Massud Barzani invited Friday all Iraqi leaders to hold talks on forming a national unity government in Iraqi Kurdistan.

"Political negotiations have bogged down and there is no agreement on forming a government, or on who will lead it," Barzani said in a statement.

"Talks in Baghdad have reached what can only be described as a crisis point and we need a new start to get everyone talking again around one table," he said, warning that protracted negotiations "could result in an increase in violence and loss of trust by the Iraqi people in their elected representatives."

"We are inviting all political leaders to Kurdistan" to negotiate the new government, added Barzani, who is president of Kurdistan's regional government.

The US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, has earlier suggested that top Iraqi politicians hold a special conference, "possibly away from Baghdad" to help break the current political stalemate, three months after the holding of general elections.