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In the Kurdish parliament in Arbil, the sort of chatter that will strike fear in the hearts of Baghdad and Washington...

(SOUNDBITE) (Kurdish) KURDISH PRESIDENT, MASSOUD BARZANI, SAYING:

"The time has come for us to determine our own fate, and we must not wait for others to determine it for us."

Massoud Barzani, the president of Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region called on parliament to take the first steps toward complete autonomy...

SOUNDBITE) (Kurdish) KURDISH PRESIDENT, MASSOUD BARZANI, SAYING:

"For that reason, I consider it necessary ... to create an independent electoral commission as a first step and, second, to make preparations for a referendum."

It's bad news for Baghdad which is battling to keep Iraq together in the face of an insurgency by Sunni militants.

The early days of the uprising exposed gaping holes in Iraq's military. While their forces abandoned their posts, Kurdish forces in the nor