The tensions could even persuade the central government to further postpone an already delayed referendum on whether to make Kirkuk part of the Kurds' semiautonomous region.
The announcement signaled the strengthening of Turkey's ties to northern Iraq, where Ankara has no sympathy for Saddam Hussein, but is also anxious to prevent the emergence of a de facto independent state for the Kurds, whose region adjoins the area dominated by Turkey's Kurdish minority.
THEY may not frame it quite so bluntly, but the dominant sentiment in the Kurds' autonomous region of northern Iraq is a gleeful "We told you so".
On the issue of Kirkuk, there is a growing dispute about the validity of the constitutional requirement that the city must hold a referendum to determine whether it will join the Kurds' semiautonomous region.
The authorities in the Kurds' autonomous region in the north responded to last month's unrest by moving their troops south of Kurdish territory in what they said was a bid to protect the oilfields.
It has also acted to heal rifts with the Kurds' autonomous region, transferring an initial $500m tranche of federal funds that had been withheld by Baghdad in protest against Kurdish efforts to exploit their own oil resources.
Better relations with the Kurds, whose region is autonomous, with its own administration and armed forces, could take some pressure off Mr. Maliki and his Shiite-led government, which has been trying to cope with a surge in sectarian violence spilling over from Syria.
Meanwhile, smaller firms, including France's Perenco and Canada's Heritage Oil, signed exploration deals in areas such as the Kurd-controlled region in northern Iraq.
WASHINGTON -- The Kurd-dominated region of Afrin in northwestern Syria, home to more than 1 million people and hundreds of thousands of refugees, is not receiving international humanitarian aid in part because of the Syrian government of Bashar Assad, a top Kurdish leader said Tuesday.
Sinam Mohamed, an international representative for the administration of the Kurd-controlled regions of northern Syria, made the revelation at an event with reporters at the Washington Kurdish Institute.
