BAGHDAD, Jan 9: Iraq's interim Governing Council has agreed to a federal structure for the country and to enshrining Kurdish self-rule in three northern provinces in the fundamental law that will precede national elections next year , council member Judge Dara Nuraddin said on Friday.

The fate of three more provinces over which the Kurds have claims would be decided in 2005 or 2006, he said. Kurdish leaders Jalal Talabani and Massoud Barzani on Thursday met four Arab Governing Council members on Iraq's future shape in the northern town of Salahuddin.

Judge Nuraddin, a Kurdish independent helping draft the country's basic law, said the lawmakers had already decided on basic principles for Kurdish self-rule.

"In the fundamental law, Kurdistan will have the same legal status as it has now," he said, referring to the region that has enjoyed virtual autonomy since the end of the 1991 US occupation.

He said the council had decided that the basic law, to be adopted by March 1, will formally recognize the principle of a federal Iraq, preserving the Kurds' legal right to autonomy over the long term.

"The Governing Council has agreed that federalism be included in the basic law ... The Kurds will have the same rights they have now." The decision came after the 25-member council's five Kurdish members refused to budge on the issue during recent heated discussions.

"Some Governing Council members asked that details about federalism be delayed until after elections and the writing of a constitution, but we the Kurds refused it and we said everything must be worked out now," Nuraddin said.

"When the constitution is written and elections are held, we will not agree to less than what is in the fundamental law and we may ask for more." The current agreement would apply only to the provinces of Sulaimaniyah, Dohuk and Arbil.

The fate of the highly contested Diyala, Nineveh and oil-rich Tamim provinces, where Saddam Hussein expelled Kurds in large numbers, will be delayed until 2005 and possibly 2006 after a national census is conducted, Nuraddin said.

But he made clear the Kurds would not settle for less than Tamim's main city, Kirkuk, as the future capital of a Kurdish autonomous zone. Sectarian violence claimed the lives of seven people in Kirkuk last week.

The Governing Council's committee drafting the fundamental law had cut a deal on federalism and Kurdish autonomy about 10 days ago, Nuraddin said. He added that he expected the fundamental law to be completed by the end of the month, well ahead of the March 1 deadline outlined by the coalition.

In northern Iraq, Barzani and Talabani held talks with Ahmad Chalabi, who heads the Iraqi National Congress, Shiite independent Muwaffaq al-Rubai, Mohsen Abdul Hamid of the Iraq Islamic Party and Sunni independent Nasseer Chaderchi.

The talks concentrated on fleshing out the details on federalism already reached behind closed doors. Barzani and Talabani told reporters late Thursday all parties were in agreement on a federal Iraq.

"These meetings were fruitful because they allowed us to agree on the main principle, especially in respect to the rights of the Kurdish population. The Arab parties recognise the Kurds' right to decide their future for themselves," a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) official said.

"For their part, the Kurds agreed to delay the burning questions like defining Kurdish borders and the question of Kirkuk." US overseer Paul Bremer has consulted Kurdish leaders Barzani, whose KDP rules Arbil and Dohuk, and Talabani, whose Patriotic Union of Kurdistan controls Sulaimaniyah, three times since last week about the Kurds' territorial ambitions.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Tuesday that Kurdish territory in northern Iraq must remain part of the country when it returns to self-rule later this year. -AFP