Dispute over Kirkuk continues in Iraq

BAGHDAD (AP) — Despite intense U.S. pressure, Iraqi leaders failed Sunday to resolve differences over how to govern the oil-rich city of Kirkuk — a dispute that is blocking provincial elections and stoking tension in the volatile north.

Also Sunday, a truck bomb exploded in a Sunni area of northern Baghdad, killing 12 people and wounding 23.

Parliament had called a special session Sunday to try to reach agreement on a bill authorizing elections in all 18 Iraqi provinces — a move the United States considers essential to reconciling Iraq’s rival ethnic and religious communities.

But the session never convened because intensive talks among party and legislative leaders were unable to produce agreement on a formula that would satisfy Arab, Kurdish and Turkoman demands.