Talabani, who is chief of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), "accepted the demands of the five leaders who submitted their resignations, so as to prevent them leaving the party," a PUK official told AFP.

The five high-ranking officials submitted their resignation on Saturday, citing differences over how to tackle corruption.

Kosrat Rassoul, who is vice president of the Kurdistan regional government in northern Iraq, said he was resigning along with four members of the political office.

Efforts to fight corruption and improve democracy in both the regional government and the PUK were among the issues in dispute.

But the source, declining to be named, said the veteran PUK leader, who founded the party in 1975, has accepted terms to allow more transparency in the party's finances and for supervision of the group's intelligence services.

Under a pact signed by Talabani in Baghdad, the PUK will also open a dialogue with former dissident senior members who walked out of the party, the official said.

The Kurd region, which operates autonomously from Baghdad and benefited from the 1991 Gulf War over Kuwait in the form of US military protection, enacts its own laws and has its own security forces.

The region, which is to hold elections to its parliament in May, has since the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq enjoyed better security than the rest of the country, allowing it to attract foreign investment.

Its three provinces -- Arbil, Dohuk and Sulaimaniyah -- are ruled with an iron fist by the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party headed by regional president Massud Barzani.

Rival political parties have accused the PUK and Barzani's party of accepting bribes to push through lucrative contracts.