ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the Kurdistan Region, has arrived in Baghdad for talks on Iraqi government formation and the question of who will become president.

Barzani, who is deputy president of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), is meeting with Haider al-Abadi, the incumbent prime minister of Iraq, and Shiite cleric Ammar al-Hakim, head of the Hikma Front.

The KDP plans to field its own candidate for the Iraqi presidency – a largely ceremonial post traditionally held by a Kurd – after refusing to endorse the nomination of Barham Salih by the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).

The Iraqi parliament’s newly elected speaker, Mohamed al-Halbusi, was in Erbil earlier on Saturday to hold meetings with KDP President Masoud Barzani and security chief Masrour Barzani.

Months after Iraq’s May 12 parliamentary election, the country is still without a new government.

Rudaw