The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), whose peshmerga militias fought a bloody civil war from 1994 to 1998, on Sunday made official what they had long promised.

Kurdistan's parliament on Sunday unanimously voted to unify the KDP-controlled Arbil and Dohuk provinces with the PUK-controlled Sulaimaniyah province forming one government and making Arbil the capital of both areas.

Critics of the government, however, regard the unification as little more than a facade and suspect that little of the day-to-day running of affairs will change.

"Of course all power will stay in the hands of the political parties," said Sardar Mohammed, an independent journalist in Sulaimaniyah, adding that with the opposition weak to non-existent, the parties reign supreme.

Security forces, for instance, remain loyal only to their respective leaders while other key issues in the power sharing government stand unresolved leaving many Kurds wondering what, if anything, will change in their lives.

"They've joined on the face of it but things will stay the same. They haven't done anything for the people until now," said Ali Omar, a skeptical police officer who said he continues to draw his pay from the PUK's coffers in Sulaimaniyah.

Since 1998, rivalries between the two formerly warring Kurdish factions had prevented repeated attempts to set up a joint administration and the landmark session was attended by a host of Iraqi leaders and international officials led by US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad.

In Arbil, Karim Saeed, a shoe merchant, was hopeful that the decision would bring real results.

"The union will bring more security and stability to the region and to Iraq in general," he said.

In contrast to local squabbles, the PUK and the KDP, led by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Kurdish regional president Massud Barzani respectively, have cooperated admirably well in national politics.

The single administration is expected to reaffirm Kurdish territorial claims, especially for the ethnically mixed oil-hub of Kirkuk that Kurds consider their own, which is located just south of their autonomous region.

But things have not been so simple at home in the north where control over four key cabinet posts, the defense, interior, finance and justice ministries -- the main points of contention during drawn out negotiations -- are still a sticking point.

Asked why the posts weren't agreed upon ahead of unification, Imad Ahmed, deputy prime minister of Kurdistan in Sulaimaniyah told AFP "give us more time, we haven't had democracy for long," adding that he expected differences to be ironed out over the next year.

Speaking just ahead of the unification ceremony Ahmed said "the change will be huge, there will be one government in Kurdistan."

Independent observers said that given Kurdistan's fratricidal past and each party's jealously guarded powers, there will be little change.

"The disagreement has always been over the four ministries. If they couldn't agree on that, what does the union change?" said Mohammed, the Sulaimaniyah journalist.

"The problem is, neither of these two parties will ever accept a role in the opposition. They both always want to be winners, which is why the civil war started in the first place," he added.

Mohammed complained that the union had created "one of the greatest bureaucracies known to man," because no one in either administration was willing to give up any power.

Of Kurdistan's 111 parliamentarians, 45 have been given cabinet posts with 42 of those in the rank of minister.

Their inability to cooperate has long made daily life difficult for ordinary Kurds.

Telecommunications between the two Kurdish regions, for instance, are notoriously difficult because PUK and KDP controlled mobile telephone companies, the only ones available, have yet to allow their clients to phone each other.

The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a rebel group founded in Turkey which sees itself as the backbone of the Kurdish independence movement in Kurd areas throughout the region sees the union in Iraq as a little too late.

In an interview to AFP in a rebel hide-out in the mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan, PKK commander Cemil "Cuma" Bayik said "the union is a good step but it comes too late. It is just on the surface. It is not real."

Kurds, who at over five million make up around 20 percent of Iraq's population, are estimated to number between 25 and 35 million people and are mostly spread throughout Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq.