WASHINGTON, Oct 17: US President George Bush on Monday said he opposed dividing Iraq into a Kurdish, a Shia and a Sunni region, which he said would create even more chaos.

“Three autonomous regions will create not only a situation where Sunnis and Sunni nations and Sunni radicals will be competing against Shia radicals. The Kurds will then create problems for Turkey and Syria,” he said in an interview with Fox News.

“And you have got a bigger mess than we have at this point in time, which I believe is going to be solved.”

The Iraqi parliament on Oct 11, 2006, approved a law which would allow the country’s 18 provinces to hold referendums to merge into larger federal regions with a measure of self-government.

This is expected to confirm the de facto self-rule already enjoyed by the Kurdish north and lead to a new Shia homeland in the oil-rich south.

The measure is opposed by some in the Sunni community, who fear that their group will be left with territory in the barren west and centre of the country.

Iraqi lawmakers however agreed to freeze the merger process for 18 months to give time to revise the country’s constitution.—AFP