Date: 11 June 2004 Source: KDP website

ARBIL, Iraq, June 11 (AFP) - 20h55 - The Kurdish parliament on Friday endorsed the new UN Security Council resolution on Iraq after political leaders earlier expressed anger over the document's failure to mention Kurdish self-rule.

A special session of the parliament had been called amid complaints that the UN Security Council resolution 1546 adopted on Tuesday omitted any reference to Iraq's interim constitution or fundamantal law that enshrines the Kurds right to self-rule in the north.

Shawis said Iraq's president, Sunni tribal sheikh Ghazi al-Yawar, and prime minister Iyad Allawi, a secular pro-US Shiite, "had indicated they were committed to the fundamental law, and during his recent European tour, US President George W. Bush expressed his commitment to this law."

The Kurdish parliament, which groups the two main Kurdish factions - the Kurdistan Democratic Party and the Patriotic Union for Kurdistan - convened on Friday in Arbil, 350 kilometres (220 miles) north of the capital.

"Iraq will continue to adhere to the fundamental law until elections are held, following a referendum on the constitution at the end of 2005," Shawis told reporters after the parliament session, which lasted just 90 minutes.

The Kurdish parliament groups 105 deputies, of whom 51 members belong to the KDP and 49 members to the PUK, along with five Christians.

The special meeting was also attended by 25 other parties ranging from communists to Islamists.

"The Americans did not come here to give us federalism but for their own interests," said Kurdish transport minister Haidar al-Sheikh Ali.

"Let's call on the Kurds to stay in government and reinforce our alliances."

Others were more concerned.

Ahmad Sharif, a PUK member, said he was "pessimistic about the future."

"I am afraid about the Arab parties' positions towards the Kurds," he said.

Kurdish political giants Massoud Barzani and Jalal Talabani had issued a joint statement Tuesday saying that if Iraq did not stay faithful to the fundamental law, Iraq's Kurdish north would quit the new Iraqi government.

Kurds have been made nervous by the strong aversion of Iraq's Shiite majority population to the fundamental law and the protections granted to the Kurds in the document.

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