In a positive development Arabs and Kurds taken steps forward on the future of Kirkuk, but difficulties remain on how to include Turkmen in the deal.

Below is an article published by AFP – Agence France Presse:

Arab and Kurdish parties in Iraq's oil city of Kirkuk have clinched a deal under which Arabs will end their boycott of the provincial council in return for a more equal sharing of power, an official said on Monday.

The "in principle" agreement was reached on Sunday, according to the chief of the Kirkuk provincial council, Razgar Ali, a leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) headed by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani.

Ethnic Turkmen, however, have refused to join the agreement and will continue boycotting the 41-member council.

Kirkuk has been gripped by ethnic tension since the US-led invasion of 2003, with Kurds demanding that the city be incorporated into the autonomous Kurdish region and Arab and ethnic Turkmen opposing this, saying they fear non-Kurdish communities will be marginalised.

A referendum to determine the future of the city, which sits on the second-largest oil and gas reserves in Iraq, was to have been held before the end of the year but officials acknowledge there is too little time left.

Under the weekend deal the six Arab members of the provincial council will end their boycott, called more than a year ago in protest at what they said was the "domination" of Kurdish parties in the multi-ethnic council.

The two major Kurdish parties, the PUK and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), occupy 26 seats in the council while the Turkmen Front has the remaining nine.

"It is a positive step towards building Kirkuk and bolstering peaceful co-existence in a partnership in which decisions will be made without injustice," said Ali, calling at the same time on the Turkmen Front to join the agreement.

An Arab member of the council, Rakan Saeed al-Juburi, called for speedy implementation of the agreement.

"We will get, for the first time, the post of Kirkuk's deputy governor and the deputy head of the judiciary council. Posts will be distributed equally -- 32 percent each for Arabs, Kurds and Turkmen and the remaining four percent for the Chaldo-Assyrian, Armenian and Sabiah minorities," Juburi said.

A Turkmen official declared that Kirkuk's problems "cannot be resolved by compensating one side while marginalising another.

"We have demanded an end to the arrest and marginalisation of Turkmen and the need to adopt the Turkmen language officially in Kirkuk, but there has been no response," said Ali Mahdi, deputy leader of Turkmen Eli party.

Kirkuk's population is estimated to be one million, a mixture of Turkmen, Kurds and Arabs with a Chaldo-Assyrian minority.

US Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said at the end of a six-day Iraqi visit on Sunday that there was no time left this year to hold a referendum, which is required under article 140 of the Iraqi constitution.

"It is my understanding that an effort will be made in the new year to get a process going forward that deals with article 140 of the constitution and the issue of Kirkuk," he told reporters in Baghdad.