KIRKUK, Iraq, Jan. 4 (UPI) -- Iraq's Parliament and the oil-rich Kirkuk provincial council are divided on a constitutional referendum to decide the province's fate.

It's a disputed territory following the wrath of Saddam Hussein, and the future of it and other disputed territories was to be decided in a referendum by Dec. 31, 2007.

An 11th-hour deal brokered by the United Nations allowed for a six-month extension to the deadline.

On Thursday, Iraqi parliamentarians disputed what the next step should be, the Voices of Iraq news agency reports, with some considering the constitutional provision void after missing the original deadline.

They'll take up the issue again Jan. 7.