A leader of the Iraqi Turkmens, who have ethnic bonds with Turkey, accused Kurds of murder and looting in Kirkuk, while a Kurdish official said the charges were aimed at triggering a Turkish military intervention against them.

Mustafa Ziya of the Iraqi Turkmen Front (ITC) said Kurds were burning and looting government offices, including those dealing with property registry, and attacking Turkmen interests "in order to annihilate the Turkmen existence."

"They want to ensure that Kirkuk's Turkmen identity cannot be proven" to ensure the town is handed over to Kurdish-majority control, he told a press conference.

"We demand that the peshmargas (Kurdish fighters) withdraw from Kirkuk as soon as possible... Many things can be changed there with fait-accomplis."

Ziya said he had received unconfirmed reports that some 50 people had been killed in the northern Iraqi town since Thursday, when US troops and Kurdish fighters took control with little resistance.

Kirkuk governor Rizgarali Hamgam told AFP Friday the situation was spiralling out of the control of local Kurdish chiefs, adding that several people had been killed.

But Bahroz Galali, the Ankara representative of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), whose fighters entered Kirkuk Thursday with US special forces, rejected the Turkmen allegations as "wrong from A to Z and propaganda."

Galali said "some quarters here are trying to create a pretext for the Turkish army to intervene in northern Iraq."

Ankara has threatened to intervene militarily if Kirkuk and the other key regional oil center Mosul fell to Kurdish control.

It fears that oil revenues could embolden Iraqi Kurds to move towards independence, a prospect that could set an example to their restless kinsmen in adjoining southeastern Turkey.

The PUK has said it will withdraw from Kirkuk on Friday and hand over control of the city to US troops who were sent to the area after Turkey put pressure on Washington.

"The peshmargas will leave Kirkuk gradually... But security is required in Kirkuk so we have to hand over the town to the Americans," Galali said, adding that they were waiting for the US reinforcements to arrive.

Iraqi Kurds lay claim to both Kirkuk and Mosul saying they were in the majority there before the cities were taken over by Arabs under the regime of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Thousands of Kurdish exiles began rushing back to Kirkuk after its fall on Thursday, some in a bid to reclaim property.

The Kurds consider Kirkuk as their prospective capital in a federal Iraq.

The Turkmens also claim Kirkuk and Mosul as their own.

SPACE.WIRE