Maliki insisted the so-called Support Councils were necessary to improve security in the war-torn country, and rejected accusations from President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, that they were illegal militias.

"We see no practical or legal justification for abolishing these councils after they have succeeded in establishing security and stability and aiding national reconciliation efforts," Maliki said in a statement.

"We have not distributed a single rifle, pistol, or bullet to the Support Councils, so we find it strange that you describe them as militias," he added.

Maliki has long insisted that the groups are a natural outgrowth of the "Awakening" movement launched in 2006, when tribes in the restive Sunni province of Anbar allied with US forces to battle Al-Qaeda in Iraq.

But Talabani and other Kurdish leaders have slammed the founding of such groups in mixed Kurdish and Arab regions, accusing Maliki of trying to tighten Baghdad's grip on disputed areas they hope to add to their autonomous region.

"Maliki is clinging to his decision to form Support Councils and he considers it legal, but we will go to the constitutional court to see whether it is legal or not," Talabani told reporters earlier this week.

On November 21 the presidential council, which includes Talabani, Shiite Vice President Adel Abdel Mahdi and Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi called on Maliki to suspend the groups so their legality could be reviewed.

But Maliki has shown no sign of relenting on the issue, and criticised Talabani for raising it through statements to the media.

"I imagine your eminence agrees with me that speaking by way of the media weakens the credibility of the executive council," Maliki said, referring to a group encompassing the presidential council, the premier and his two deputies.

The Kurds have controlled a largely autonomous region in northern Iraq since the end of the Gulf War in 1991, when the US military established a no-fly zone there after driving Saddam Hussein's forces out of Kuwait.

But they hope to expand the zone to include largely Kurdish areas in northern and eastern Iraq, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk which is ethnically divided between Kurds, Arabs, and Turkmen.