Kurdistan challenges Baghdad export powers

LONDON - Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan region has opened a new front in its battle with Baghdad over oil rights, challenging the central government's exclusive authority to export crude by forging an economic alliance with Turkey and attempting to exploit ambiguities in Iraqi law.

The Iraqi government contends that control of oil exports -- and the resulting revenues -- is a federal power of international trade enshrined in the Constitution, as it is in other states around the world. The State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO), which reports to the Oil Ministry, is the only organization to which Baghdad has given authority to market and sell oil.