ARBIL: Iraqi Kurd officials on Sunday denied PKK forces were among its peshmerga fighters in the disputed oil province of Kirkuk, although they could include sympathisers of Turkey's outlawed Kurdish group.
"There are no PKK forces in Kirkuk, but there are some volunteers who sympathise with the PKK," the Kurdistan Workers' Party, said General Jabar Yawer, head of the peshmerga ministry.
There were also "other volunteers, independents and Islamists fighting Daesh since 2014", he added, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
"They support the peshmerga. They are irregular forces," Yawer said.
Another ministry official also denied their presence, after Baghdad earlier said the PKK were among peshmerga fighters in an armed standoff with Iraqi troops in Kirkuk, charging it amounted to a "declaration of war".
The allegations came just hours before the expiry of a deadline for peshmerga fighters to withdraw from areas they took in Kirkuk in 2014 during a fightback against IS.
Crisis talks on Sunday made little headway in resolving an armed standoff between Kurdish and Iraqi forces in the province.
Tensions have soared between the central government and Iraqi Kurds since they overwhelmingly voted for independence in a September 25 referendum whose results Baghdad has demanded be nullified.