KIRKUK, Dec 22: Thousands of Iraqi Kurds gathered here on Monday to demand that the northern oil centre be included in a future autonomous Kurdish region.

“Kirkuk, Kirkuk, heart of Kurdistan,” they chanted in the city centre. “We demand federalism for Kurdistan”.

It was the biggest demonstration the city 300 kilometres north of Baghdad has seen since the Baath regime fell on April 9.

Kirkuk lies south of the three provinces ruled by Kurdish guerilla factions in defiance of Saddam Hussein and is populated with Arabs and Turkmen as well as Kurds.

Protestors waved the red white and green Kurdish flag, which bears a yellow sun in the middle, but no Iraqi flags were on show. A giant US flag was also unfurled.

The demonstration was split along party lines between the two main former rebel factions — the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdistan Democratic Party.—AFP