Kirkuk debate continues over vote

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.

The provincial council, however, demanded in a special session a referendum be held by the end of May 2007, IraqSlogger.com reports.

Kirkuk holds between 11 billion and 15 billion barrels of Iraq's proven oil reserves of 115 billion barrels. The Iraqi Kurdistan region wants the historically Kurdish province to be incorporated into its area. Many Arabs and Turkomen are against it, wanting to keep it under Baghdad's watch.

Saddam Hussein, seeking to keep tabs on the oil and disrupt any Kurdish unity, kicked out Kurds and others, replaced them with Arabs, and redrew the boundaries of northern provinces.