ANKARA, June 15 (AFP) - 13h24 - Turkey on Wednesday termed "meaningless" the selection of Massoud Barzani as president of Iraqi Kurdistan before a new Iraqi constitution outlining the country's new administrative system is drawn up and approved at a popular vote.Barzani's selection on Sunday as regional president of the three provinces of Sulaimaniyah, Arbil and Dohuk in mainly Kurdish northern Iraq "does not carry much meaning," foreign ministry spokesman Namik Tan told reporters.

"The future structure of Iraq will take its final shape only after completion of the constitution and will gain legitimacy with the social consent that the Iraqi people will display by approving the constitution," Tan said.

Ankara is suspicious that the Kurds in neighboring northern Iraq are seeking to lay the foundations of future independence in the wake of Saddam Hussein's ouster.

It fears such moves will set a destabilizing example for its own restive Kurds across the border and spark new tensions in the region, where Iran and Syria are also home to Kurdish minorities.

"Turkey has always said that the protection of Iraq's political unity and territorial integrity is necessary for both its own national interests and the well-being of the region, and will continue to expend efforts in this direction," Tan said.

He stressed that Iraq's current laws foresee a federal system, but one "defined according to geographical and administrative criteria and not on sectarian and ethnic bases."

The interim government in Baghdad is still trying to work out the make-up of a committee to prepare the constitution that will satisfy all its ethnic and religious groups.

The committee has an August 15 deadline to draw up the basic law for post-Saddam Iraq, but with the option of announcing a one-off six-month delay by August 1.

The document is due to be put to referendum by October 15, ahead of elections to choose a fully mandated government by December 15.