American diplomats were trying to avert a political crisis in Iraq's ethnically volatile northern province of Kirkuk this week, amid Sunni and Turkoman claims of being strong-armed out of key government posts by the Kurdish majority in the newly elected provincial council.

After a series of meetings between council members from the three mainly ethnic-based blocs, six Sunni Arab members are threatening to boycott the new council unless the Kurds agree to an equitable ethnic power-sharing deal.