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Iraqi Kurd PM to visit Baghdad over oil deals

ARBIL, Iraq, Dec 9, 2007 (AFP) - The prime minister of Iraq's autonomous northern Kurdish region 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 northern region.

The separate issue of the northern 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 town into the northern region 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.