President says Iraq will have a new flag

Iraq's President Jalal Talabani has vowed that Iraq would soon get a new national flag, amid a fierce dispute between Kurds and Arabs over the current banner.

"It's a Saddamist flag," Talabani said, standing before the red, white, black and green flag used under ousted leader Saddam Hussein's regime, at a joint news conference with British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett on Tuesday.

"A lot of crimes have been committed under this flag in the south, in the north and against our neighbours," he said, referring to Saddam's repression of Kurds and Shiite Arabs and his invasions of Iran and Kuwait.

"Iraq will have a new flag and the national assembly will discuss the new flag," he said, speaking on the same day Iraqi lawmakers returned to parliament after a month-long recess.

"There is no idea of a separate Kurdistan, we are not for separatism, there is no truth in these reports," the Kurdish president said, in an attempt to play down Arab fears of any northern breakaway destroying Iraq.

Talabani said no decision had been made on the design of a new national flag, but that he personally favoured the banner used between 1959 and 1963 under the republic which succeeded the former monarchy.

Controversy erupted over the continuing use of the Saddam-era flag last week, when the president of the autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq, Massud Barzani, banned it from his area.

Sunni Arabs reacted with fury, accusing Barzani of insulting the nation and fanning the flames of separatism.

Sunni Arab politician Saleh al-Mutlak struck back angrily on Tuesday against Kurdish justifications for not flying the national flag.

"We regret that some politicians have kept silent about this issue, which is one of the biggest violations of the sanctity of the Iraqi constitution," Mutlak said at the headquarters of his National Dialogue Front Party.

"This is also a message for the president to keep his word, because when we elected him he recited his oath with the Iraqi flag behind him and swore to protect the sovereignty of Iraq," he added.