BAGHDAD —  Iraq's Kurdish deputy prime minister warned Monday that failure to resolve the fate of the oil-rich city of Kirkuk could result in more strife and accused people within the government of blocking a solution.

"We have a choice," Barham Saleh told The Associated Press. "We can either turn Kirkuk into an example of national Iraqi unity ... or turn it into a battlefield for strife between the components of Iraq."

A referendum is expected later this year on whether Kirkuk will join the semiautonomous Kurdish zone to its north, or continue to be ruled by Baghdad.

Saleh said it was unacceptable to leave the dispute unresolved and accused unnamed people within the government of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki of trying to stymie a solution spelled out in the 2005 constitution.

"I am a Kurd and see Kirkuk as part of the Kurdish region," Saleh said, explaining that because Arabs and Turkomen _ the other two main ethnic groups inhabiting the city _ see it differently, the issue must be resolved under current law.

Kirkuk's Arab and Turkomen residents dispute the Kurdish claim to the city, which has over the past 4 1/2 years seen hundreds of deadly attacks with sectarian or ethnic motives.

Leaders of Iraq's Shiite majority fear allowing Kirkuk to join the Kurdish region could undermine their new status as the country's dominant power, while the once-dominant Sunni Arab minority sees the loss of the city as a prelude to the breakup of the nation along sectarian or ethnic lines.

Saleh, like President Jalal Talabani, is widely viewed as a moderate Kurd and his assertion that Kirkuk is part of the Kurdish region reflects a universal conviction among Kurds. But his charge that government parties were working against a solution in Kirkuk reflects tension between the Kurds and their close Shiite allies.

The Kurds and Shiites, who combine for about 80 percent of Iraq's population, have been close allies since Saddam's ouster in 2003, but recent Kurdish assertions of independence, like the conclusion of oil exploration deals with foreign companies, without involving the central government, have led to harsh public exchanges.

The constitution, which most of Iraq's Sunni Arabs voted against in a 2005 referendum, provides for the "normalization" of Kirkuk _ allowing Kurds forcibly moved from the city under Saddam Hussein's "Arabization" program to return and inviting Arabs lured there decades ago by financial reward to leave in return for compensation.

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