The Kurds say they will hold an election for a Kurdish parliament and a paramount Kurdish leader on April 30.

The Kurdish parliament in Erbil ceased to function, and members of one faction were unable to travel into the territory held by the other.

The Kurdish parties have stopped fighting, and after an adjournment of several years the joint Kurdish parliament began meeting again last fall.

By late morning, a spokesman for a group calling itself the Kurdish parliament in exile issued a statement asking demonstrators in Europe to desist.

With elections scheduled for April 3 to create a Kurdish parliament and a central government, the political value of the stations looms large.

A few hours later, Ansar's militants assassinated a minister of the Kurdish parliament and two security officials in a nearby village.

They were able to manage local governments, establish free and active Kurdish political parties, and institutionalze a Kurdish parliament.

He promises them free elections to a Kurdish parliament, pluralism and a free press.

The latest kidnapping came the day after the group assassinated a minister of the Kurdish parliament in what the authorities describe as an intricately laid trap.

An Iraqi flag was raised over the building where the Kurdish parliament, controlled by the Patriotic Union, had been meeting, they said.