Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, on Wednesday urged Iraq’s Kurds and Arabs to work with fresh urgency to resolve their long-running disputes over oil and land, arguments that could spark a new wave of sectarian violence in northern Iraq as security across the rest of the country gradually improves.

His comments came as the results of last weekend’s Kurdish parliamentary and presidential elections revealed the reformist Change List, which favours rapprochement with the central government in Baghdad, won more than 23 per cent of the vote.