"We have agreed on a full programme for a Kurdish delegation to go and negotiate in Baghdad on our participation in the formation of the new government," said Massud Barzani, president of Kurdish-ruled northern Iraq.

"We are ready to take part in all negotiations with all Iraqi parties in order to put an end to the Iraqi crisis and speed up the formation of a new government based on the principle of a partnership," he said on television.

The Kurdish parties, mainly Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Jalal Talabani, who is president of Iraq, won 59 seats in the 321-member Iraqi parliament.

The Kurdish alliance said last Thursday that it would accept the candidate for premier chosen by the new Shiite coalition of incumbent Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Maliki's State of Law Alliance and the Iraqi National Alliance (INA) led by Shiite religious groups announced earlier in the week that they were forming a new coalition.

The outcome of the poll contested two months ago, meanwhile, neared finalisation on Sunday as the results from all but one province were sent for ratification and a recount in the lone exception, Baghdad, was half-way done.

Preliminary nationwide results have shown that the Iraqiya bloc of secular ex-premier Iyad Allawi won the most seats with 91, followed closely by the Maliki's State of Law Alliance with 89.

But neither bloc commands the majority needed to form a government on its own and must form a coalition.