The memo was signed by "interior ministers" of the local administrations of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in the presence of an officer from the US-led coalition in the PUK's stronghold of Sulaymaniya on Wednesday, they said.

Under rules to come into force in a fortnight, only security men will be allowed to carry weapons and arms markets will be prohibited. Residents were given 15 days to turn in any heavy weapons to local police.

Fighters of the KDP and PUK, both of which allied themselves with coalition forces that ousted the regime of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein in April, were exempted from a coalition order to Iraqi militias to lay down their weapons by mid-June.

The exemption applies to three northern provinces under Kurdish control.

But Kurdish officials said that while the KDP and PUK peshmergas would be allowed to keep their weapons, the new rules also impose restrictions on them.

The fighters can only carry these weapons when they are in military uniform, must carry the licenses authorizing their use, and must avoid parading with their weapons inside cities. Other Kurdish militias will have to be disarmed.

The KDP and PUK, which have controlled Iraqi Kurdistan since the end of the 1991 Gulf War, together command more than 50,000 peshmergas, a number that doubles if reservists are counted.

Officials from both sides have said they hope their men will be integrated into a reconstituted Iraqi army following the coalition's dissolution of Saddam's military.

WAR.WIRE