ANKARA -- Iraq's strategically important city of Kirkuk will be part of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in the north in 2007, Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani was quoted as saying yesterday.

Barzani, president of the Kurdish region, claimed there would be chaos and conflict in Iraq in the event the oil-rich city did not join Kurdistan.

Otherwise, the gains achieved by Kurds so far may be lost with Shiite and Sunni votes. Such a situation, even if it is not accepted by the Kurds and people of Kurdistan, would lead to chaos in the federal Iraq, Barzani was quoted as saying at a meeting in Salahaddin, according to the Dogan News Agency.

He went on to say that chaos in Iraq was not something acceptable to friendly countries, either. Kurdish people with strong representation in a federal Iraq will be the guarantee of stability in the region.

The status of ethnically mixed Kirkuk is a potential source of tension in the war-torn Iraq, with Kurds, Turkmens and Arabs vying for control of the city, which sits atop 6 percent of the world's known oil reserves.

In 2007, Kirkuk residents will vote on the status of the city and Kurds, who have migrated to the city in large groups in the past couple of years to reclaim what they say is property that was forcefully taken by the ousted Saddam Hussein administration, are widely expected to outnumber Turkmens and Arabs in the vote.

Turkey is calling for a special administration for Kirkuk that gives a share to each ethnic group and is concerned about possible Kurdish control of the city, fearing its oil revenue could give the Kurds leverage to pursue an independent state.

Barzani, a fierce proponent of Kurds' right to have an independent state, said it was the Kurds' natural right to have their own state but added that this is not realistic at the moment.

It is wiser to have a federal Kurdistan in a pluralist, democratic and federal Iraq than to have a Kurdistan isolated in its region, he said.

Turkey is in agreement with other neighbors of Iraq, namely Syria and Iran, which all border the Kurdish region in the north of Iraq, in opposing the establishment of a Kurdish state.

Barzani also said Iraq's upcoming parliamentary elections on Dec. 15 would be a key turning point for Iraqi Kurds because strong representation in Parliament would give the Kurds the chance to finalize articles of the constitution that are of vital importance for them.

Turkish Daily News