Both sides were upbeat after the talks between Maliki, regional president Massud Barzani and Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, which come amid US pressure for the central government and Kurdish authorities to settle their differences before American troops pull out in 2011.

Maliki arrived early Sunday in Kurdistan's second city Sulaimaniyah, his first trip to the region since June 2007, for the talks in the summer resort town of Dukan, 75 kilometres (50 miles) to the northwest.

He told reporters afterwards he was "satisfied with this meeting, and we agreed that these meetings should continue at the leadership level" and below.

He said as part of the process of trying to resolve points of dispute, a team comprising Iraqi and Kurdish officials would set up shop in Kurdistan while a Kurdish delegation would visit Baghdad. He gave no further details.

"An appointed team will start tonight to discuss the political and strategic conflicts," the Iraqi premier told reporters at a joint press conference with Barzani and Talabani, who is Kurdish.

He added: "A delegation from Kurdistan will come to Baghdad, and I hope that (regional prime minister Nechirvan) Barzani will be among the delegation, in order to discuss unfinished issues and resolve the problems."

Kurdish demands to expand their region in northern Iraq to include the oil-rich ethnically mixed province of Kirkuk and other areas along Kurdistan's border with the rest of Iraq have triggered an increasingly heated war of words with Maliki's Shiite-led central government.

Barzani insisted in campaigning ahead of last month's regional parliamentary and presidential elections that he would not "compromise" on the Kurds' long-standing claims to Kirkuk.

But on Sunday he said he was "flexible" and that he and Maliki had "agreed to resolve the problems between us."

He described the meeting with Maliki as "very successful."

On a visit to Iraq last week, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates urged Arab and Kurdish leaders to settle their political differences before American troops leave the country.

Under a security accord signed between Baghdad and Washington in November, US forces are due to withdraw by the end of 2011.

The US military is closely monitoring the situation and has set up liaison offices with commanders of Kurdish militia and Baghdad government forces to try to prevent tensions from escalating, said the top American commander in Iraq, General Ray Odierno.

Maliki will also be seeking to shore up support from Kurdish parties in the run-up to next year's election, as his own grouping is unlikely to be able to win enough seats on its own to secure a majority in parliament.

Kurdish leaders, meanwhile, are likely to be keen to court allies in Baghdad as the United States -- a close ally of Arbil -- reduces its military presence in Iraq.

Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have for decades dominated politics in Kurdistan, and their joint list secured 57 percent of the vote in the parliamentary poll.

But their stranglehold over the region was challenged in the election, as two smaller groups fared better than expected and look set to form the region's first credible opposition in parliament.