ANKARA, April 13 (AFP)  The two main Kurdish factions controlling northern Iraq have
 agreed on a number of compromises to help them apply a 1998 accord that has been delayed
 by fueding, a local official told AFP Friday.

 The Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of Massoud Barzani and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
 (PUK) of Jalal Talabani held three meetings in the past week to work out how to apply the 1998
 Washington agreement signed under US patronage, said Safeen Dizayee, the KDP's Ankara
 representative.

 During the meetings, the two sides agreed to decrease their military presence along the
 ceasefire line, to relax restraints on freedom of movement and to open offices in each other's
 sectors by the end of April, Dizayee said.

 "The KDP has also pledged to make financial contributions to PUK" from oil revenues, he added
 without disclosing figures.

 Northern Iraq has been outside Baghdad's control since the 1991 Gulf War and is shielded from
 President Saddam Hussein's forces by a UN and British imposed no-fly zone.

 The PUK controls the eastern part of the area bordering Iran, while the KDP administers the
 part of the region that borders Turkey.

 Together with the Islamic Tewhid Party, the KDP and the PUK have also signed a joint
 declaration to enhance security cooperation.

 The declaration was of particularly important because the murderers of the governor of the
 KDP-controlled Arbil province, slain in February, were members of a splinter group from Tewhid,
 the official said.

 A man involved in the murder has already been captured by PUK and handed over to KDP, he
 added.

 "There was bloodshed in the past and time proved to be the best remedy," Safeen Dizayee
 said.

 "Since January when Talabani and Barzani met (for the first time in three years) we have
 managed to build mutual trust and these recent meetings will contribute to the
 confidence-building," he added.

 The Ankara representative of the PUK, Bahros Galali, told AFP that the issue of establishing a
 joint parliament was still to be resolved.

 But he also hailed the progress.

 "We want to forge good relations. Peace is very important for both sides and we have to try all
 means to achieve peace," Galali said.

 Both officials asserted that their factions would not tolerate the presence in their region of rebels
 from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting Turkey since 1984.

 Turkey says some 5,000 PKK militants have crossed to northern Iraq since 1999 when the PKK
 said it was laying down its arms and withdrawing from Turkey to seek a peaceful resolution to
 the Kurdish conflict.

 Both the KDP and PUK have recently accused the PKK of carrying out attacks to destabilize
 the area.

 In the most recent incident, seven civilians were killed in early April in a mine explosion blamed
 on the PKK.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com