Sulaimaniyah, 270 kilometres (170 miles) north of Baghdad, is the focus of considerable tension between rival Kurdish parties, vying for maximum leverage in the event of Kurds being possible kingmakers in Iraq's next government.

Campaigning will be banned throughout the province from 9:OO pm to 6:00 am, election organisers said, a decision that came in the wake of several violent incidents, including a shooting that left three political activists wounded.

The curfew will "protect the process of campaigning for the political entities and candidates, prevent traffic accidents, and protect citizens in the province," said a local Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) statement.

"Anyone who infringes the curfew will be punished," it added, without giving further details.

The restrictions will last until the end of campaigning on March 5, two days before the election.

Security forces loyal to Iraqi President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) were accused Thursday of having shot and wounded three people from the rival Goran ("Change" in Kurdish) bloc in a clash at a political meeting in Sulaimaniyah, a stronghold of Talabani supporters, on Tuesday night.

Goran, which is comprised of former PUK activists, emerged in regional polls last year as a rival to the two main Kurdish parties, the PUK and the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party), of regional president Massud Barzani.

It is contesting national elections for the first time, having broken away from the PUK last year and polled a surprising 23.57 percent of the vote in northern Iraq's regional election in July.

The curfew on campaigning was recommended by Sulaimaniyah's security committee, which is controlled by the PUK, the IHEC statement said.

Latif Mustapha, the number one Goran candidate in the province, said the curfew was politically motivated, called for an investigation into the PUK's actions at Tuesday's disrupted meeting, and refused to confirm that he would obey the order.

"We consider this decision from the (electoral) commission unprofessional and think it came about as the result of political pressure," Mustapha said.

"Maybe the PUK is behind this decision. If it is proven that a political party used its militia for these purposes then such a party should be disqualified."

A spokesman for Sulaimaniyah's security committee on Thursday said PUK forces had arrested 11 people at the Goran meeting, some of whom had shot their weapons in the air, and that three people were wounded and taken to hospital.

The PUK replied on Friday, accusing Goran of throwing stones at a convoy that was taking two of its senior officials through central Sulaimaniyah the previous evening.

However, Farhad Mullah Rassul, head of the PUK and KDP's Kurdistani list in the province, said he would respect the curfew.

"I ask the other lists to avoid worsening the hatred between Kurds," he added.

Iraq's Kurdish politicians, who are locked in a dispute with the central government in Baghdad over territory and oil rights, will lack unity for the first time in next month's election, due to the rise of the Goran opposition.

The split last year fractured an alliance that Kurdish parties had presented in all polls since the overthrow of dictator Saddam Hussein after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Goran's campaign is primarily centred on resolving disagreements between the Baghdad government and the Kurdish autonomous region, which its rivals have so far failed to do.