 One of Iraq's two top Kurdish leaders is to be a candidate for the post of prime minister or president in any future government, according to his political rival. Kurdistan Democratic Party chief Masud Barzani said on Thursday that both Kurdish parties had agreed Jalal Talabani should be their candidate for one of the key posts in Baghdad. "Either president or the prime minister, we will not accept other than that", Barzani said. Talabani is head of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, the other main Kurdish political party. Together the two groups claim to represent about 90% of people in the Kurdish northern regions of Iraq. And despite fighting a civil war in the 1990s, both leaders formed an alliance to contest the elections. The Kurdish alliance is widely expected to come second or third in the elections, with a Shia bloc certain to win. |