RIYADH, Jan 6: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal warned on Tuesday that rivalry between Iraq's ethnic groups and their desire for self-autonomy would lead to the country's partition and have 'negative repercussions' on its neighbours.

"The danger of starting on the confessional and ethnic road will consequently partition Iraq, threatening our own se-curity," the minister told a press conference in the Saudi capital.

Prince Saud, whose country borders Iraq, said Iraqis have the right to choose their own government or regime when power is transferred to them next year by the US-led coalition currently governing the country.

But, he added, "all regimes founded on a confessional or ethnic basis do not help bring stability and territorial integrity to a country." Kurdish leaders Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani have already put forward draft legislation to Iraq's interim Governing Council demanding immediate creation of an enlarged autonomous region, without waiting for the adoption of an interim Basic Law in March.

The issue has fuelled violence in the northern oil centre of Kirkuk, which the Kurds want included in their self-rule region over the objections of the city's Arab and Turkmen minorities.

Seven people have been killed in clashes there since Wednesday. Governing Council president Adnan Pachachi said Sunday he was committed to a federal Iraq that would give the opportunity of self-rule to both the Kurds in the north and the Shia majority in the south.

But he stressed the issue could not be decided by the Governing Council as it was not an elected government, and should instead be put before a promised constitutional convention due to be elected in March 2005.-AFP