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Kurds to form united government in northern Iraq

ARBIL, Iraq, March 26, 2006 (AFP) - Iraqi Kurdistan's President Massud Barzani asked leaders of the two main Kurdish parties to form a single government for the autonomous region in the north of the country.

"It is a historic moment for the Kurds of Iraq who need to unify their ranks," said Nijirvan Barzani, who will serve as Kurdistan's prime minister after being asked to form the next government.

Nijirvan of Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP) will be assisted by Omar Fattah of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the other major party in the north, which is headed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

On January 21, the heads of the two parties signed an agreement paving the way for a single government in the autonomous region which has long been split between the two rival parties.

A year earlier, the Kurds elected a single parliament of a 111 members to serve four years for all three provinces in the zone.

The accord does not bring total unity to the autonomous region, however, and the respective departments of the interior, finance, justice and the peshmerga militias will not be fused.

The KDP controls the provinces of Arbil and Dohuk while the PUK administers Sulaimaniyah.