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SALAHADDIN, Iraq, March 13 (AFP) - 16h11 -
Iraq's Kurdish leaders want changes made to the
draft agreement on forming a coalition government
with the country's election-winning Shiite bloc, a
top Kurdish negotiator said Sunday.
Iraq Kurdish negotiators said they would bring their
revisions back to Baghdad for another round of talks
with the country's powerful Shiite political
alliance, six weeks after the country's first free
election in half a century.
The news meant the talks on forming a government
could drag on past the first session of the new
275-member national assembly, scheduled to open on
Wednesday.
"There is progress, but the agreement still needs
work and the participation of other political groups
in the negotiations to form a government and enlarge
its base," said Fuad Massum, one of four Kurds
negotiating with the Shiites.
Massum added that points on the ethnically-divided
northern oil city of Kirkuk still "needed to be
discussed."
His fellow negotiator, outgoing Iraqi deputy vice
president Roj Nuri Shawis, said: "There were
objections to the agreement but we will return to
Baghdad tomorrow, ready in spirit to reach an
agreement with the (Shiite) United Iraqi Alliance (UIA)
and other parties."
The Kurdish negotiating team that had thrashed out a
preliminary agreement with the UIA on Thursday
presented the tentative deal to Massoud Barzani,
head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and
members of Jalal al-Talabani's Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK).
"We've made good progress. The negotiations have not
broken off and we are going to examine the division
of the ministries in the coming days," said
negotiator and Iraq's outgoing foreign minister
Hoshyar Zebari.
On Saturday, a prominent Shiite politician had
raised hopes of an imminent agreement on a new
government a month and half after historic January
30 elections.
"It was decided by both sides the Kurds would get
back to us tomorrow (Sunday) with their final
decision and I think we'll hear something good,"
said Mohsen Abdel al-Hakim, whose father Abdel Aziz
heads one of the main Shiite factions.
The Shiite alliance won 146 seats in the new
275-seat national assembly but need a two-thirds
majority to approve a new government. The Kurds
romped to second place with 77 seats.
The UIA have sought out the Kurds in order to attain
the two-thirds majority needed to appoint a
president and his two deputies who will then
nominate Iraq's new prime minister.
In return, the Kurds have been seeking an iron-clad
commitment from the Shiites that they will respect
provisions regarding Kirkuk in an interim
constitution adopted under the US-led occupation
last year.
The text sets out steps to redress Saddam Hussein's
expulsion of around 100,000 Kurds from Kirkuk, and
also provides for a secular and federal Iraq.
AFP
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