Iraq's Kurds have a "natural right" to reclaim their old land in the northern city of Kirkuk after being driven out by Saddam Hussein, interim Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar said on Wednesday.
Ethnic tensions have risen between Kurds, Arabs and Turkmen in oil-rich Kirkuk, home to 750,000 people, as groups jostle for advantage following the handover of power in Iraq from US occupying forces to the interim government on June 28.
On a recent visit to Kirkuk, Yawar aroused Kurdish suspicions by declaring that nobody would be forced to leave their homes in the new Iraq.
But at a news conference with Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani on Wednesday, during his first official visit to the Kurdish zone as president, Yawar said those who had moved to the city after 1968 - when the Baathists seized control of Iraq - would be given financial incentives to leave.
"The government cannot force people to do something unwillingly...but for those that were displaced it is their natural right to go back and take their lands," Yawar said.
"The situation in Kirkuk should return to what it was before 1968."
Iraq's Kurds regard Kirkuk as a Kurdish city and want to reverse Saddam's "Arabisation" policy, which forced Kurds from their homes, replacing them with mostly Shia Muslim Arabs.
But the issue is explosive, with many Arabs deeply suspicious of Kurdish efforts to expand their territory and influence. Turkmen, with close linguistic and ethnic ties to Turkey, insist they are the original inhabitants of Kirkuk.
In the past year, Kurdish, Turkmen and Arab groups have clashed several times as they wrestle for dominance and several local leaders from the three groups have been assassinated.
Yawar said the incentives for people to leave would be funded by the central government and Kurdish authorities.
Speaking at the headquarters of Barzani's Kurdistan Democratic Party, Yawar reaffirmed his commitment to a federal structure for Iraq's Kurdish zone.
"Federalism is a reality, it is not something under discussion... We support this 100 percent - and the administrative law," he said.
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