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SALAHEDDIN, Iraq, May 29 (AFP) - Kurdish
leader Massoud Barzani is to head an autonomous
Kurdish region in northern Iraq after a deal with
his longtime rival, Iraq's new President Jalal
Talabani, a Kurdish official said Sunday.
The regional parliament will also meet on June 4 for
the first time since the January elections, the
official told AFP.
After years of political discord between Talabani
and Barzani, the two agreed at a meeting on Saturday
that Barzani should rule Iraq's three northern
provinces for the next four years, the official
said.
Talabani heads the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
party, while Barzani leads the rival Democratic
Party of Kurdistan, which have effectively ruled the
Kurdish part of northern Iraq outside Baghdad's
control since the end of the Gulf War in 1991.
Iraq's Kurdish north is flexing its political muscle
following the January election, the first since the
toppling of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in April
2003.
Talabani was named president of Iraq on April 6.
AFP
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