ANKARA, Oct 7 (AFP) - Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on Thursday issued a veiled warning to Iraqi Kurds against trying to claim the ethnically volatile city of Kirkuk, as Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insisted that the complex dispute over the oil-rich region must be resolved through negotiations.
"Kirkuk is a city that belongs to all Iraqis and all of Iraq's natural resources also belong to all the Iraqi people," Gul told reporters after talks with Straw here.
"If harm comes to these (principles), then harm will come to peace in all Iraq," he said.
Ankara fears that Iraqi Kurds, staunch allies of the United States in Iraq, are plotting to take control of the oil-rich northern city, which also has a large population of Turkmens, an ethnic minority of Turkish descent.
"There should be no provocative acts aiming to maximize (the Kurds') status or strenghten their the position... That would be a problem in Iraq's path toward stability," Gul said.
Turkey has repeatedly warned against attempts to upset Kirkuk's delicate demographics; Iraqi Kurds say the city was overwhelmingly Kurdish in the 1950s, before the Baghdad government launched a deliberate "Arabization" campaign.
Thousands of Arabs were encouraged during Saddam Hussein's 24-year rule to settle in Kirkuk and the Kurds are now trying to chase them out.
Straw, who came to Turkey late Wednesday from Iraq, acknowledged that the Kirkuk dispute was a complex issue, but said the opnly solution lay in a proper negotiation process.
"The Kirkuk issue is very difficult -- we understand that -- but it will have to be resolved by negotiations," said Straw, who also visited Kirkuk during his two-day stay in Iraq.
"These problems cannot be resolved overnight and not without a proper process and compensation," he said.
Turkey believes Kurdish control of the area's oil resources could further strengthen the hand of the Iraqi Kurds, whom it suspects of planning to break away from Baghdad's central control.
Such a prospect, Ankara fears, could fan separatist sentiment among its own Kurdish population -- some 13 million strong -- in neighboring southeast Turkey.
Straw sought to allay Ankara's concerns, saying Iraq would remain intact.
"The decison of the international community... is that the international boundaries of Iraq, obviously including the international boundary between Iraq and Turkey, are inviolable and cannot be changed," he said.