His announcement that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will visit the autonomous region followed a trip to Kurdish capital Arbil by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates and the top US commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno, who have both highlighted the importance of reconciling Arab-Kurd relations.

"He (Maliki) will visit Kurdistan soon, to discuss and to solve all pending problems between us and Baghdad," Barzani told AFP.

An official in Maliki's office, who declined to be identified, said no date had yet been agreed. Meanwhile, Iraqi television reported that Maliki had congratulated Barzani by telephone.

Kurdish demands to expand the boundaries of their region in northern Iraq to include the Kirkuk oilfields and other districts have triggered an increasingly heated war of words with the Shiite-led central government.

The two sides have also yet to reach agreement on the status of the Kurdish peshmerga fighters, the distribution of oil revenues and the sharing of power.

Earlier on Wednesday, Gates dangled the prospect of a faster withdrawal of US troops as he urged Iraq's Arab and Kurdish leaders to settle their feuds.

He told reporters after a two-day visit to Iraq that there was "at least some chance for a modest acceleration" of plans for the drawdown of American troops this year.

Gates spoke after meeting Barzani in Arbil, following talks with Maliki in Baghdad on Tuesday.

"He reminded his hosts that we have all sacrificed too much in blood and treasure to see the gains of the last two years lost to political differences," his press secretary Geoff Morrell said after the Barzani talks.

Gates told the Kurdish leader that it is vital both sides move quickly before US forces leave Iraq.

Odierno said on Tuesday that tensions between Iraqi Kurds and Arabs over boundaries and oil revenues represent the biggest threat to the country's stability.

Barzani, whose victory was widely expected, garnered 69.57 percent of the vote, more than twice the total of his nearest challenger, London-based university professor Kamal Miraudly, who had 25.32 percent backing.

In simultaneous parliamentary polls, the joint Kurdistania list composed of the region's two main parties -- Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) of Jalal Talabani -- chalked up 57.34 percent.

The Goran ("Change" in Kurdish) list won 23.57 percent, while the leftist-Islamist Services and Reform grouping secured 12.8 percent.

The long-dominant KDP and PUK -- former rebel factions that fought successive regimes in Baghdad -- had been firm favourites to win.

But the results for the two dissident lists raise the prospect of Kurdistan's first credible opposition in the 111-seat parliament.

Goran, largely made up of PUK defectors, and Services and Reform have condemned what they say was vote rigging.

They pointed a finger at Barzani, with Goran leader Nusherwan Mustafa, a wealthy entrepreneur and former PUK deputy leader, calling on the international community to put pressure on the president and on the Iraqi electoral commission to "stop the forged results."

Nearly 80 percent of the region's 2.5 million voters took part in what poll officials trumpeted as a transparent election.

However, Hamdia al-Husseini, head of the electoral department at Iraq's election commission, said on Wednesday that 651 complaints had been filed, resulting in 135,000 votes not yet having been counted.

Seats in parliament will be allocated once the complaints have been dealt with.

In the aftermath of the election, one person was killed and 12 others wounded when KDP supporters allegedly fired guns and shouted slogans outside the Arbil headquarters of the Islamic Kurdish Union, part of Services and Reform.