Kurd region remains a powder keg

IRBIL, Iraq, July 17 (UPI) -- An active sectarian conflict that could ignite at any time remains a threat in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, the Kurdish prime minister says.

Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani says attempts to resolve long-standing disputes between the Kurds and the country's central government have produced a stalemate, the Washington Post reported Friday.

The newspaper says the Kurds and the Iraqi government are closer to war than at any time since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

For months U.S. officials have been warning that ethnic conflicts pitting the Kurdish regional government against the federal government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki pose the greatest threat to Iraq's stability and could persist for years.

Barzani says the two sides narrowly avoided bloodshed last month when Kurdish residents and militiamen loyal to the Kurdish regional government faced off with an Arab-led Iraqi army unit trying to enter the predominantly Kurdish town of Makhmur.

After 24 hours of negotiations, the Arab-led Iraqi unit was diverted.