DHAKA: Kurdish leaders have vowed to boycott the cabinet of Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki after he accused Kurds of harbouring extremists.

On Wednesday Maliki said the Kurdish provincial capital Irbil was a haven for jihadist fighters from the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (Isis).

A spokesman for Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani said Maliki ‘had become hysterical’ and urged him to step down, reports the BBC.

Last month Isis insurgents seized huge swathes of north-western Iraq.

Kurdish forces moved into areas abandoned by the Iraqi army during the Isis advance, including the oil-rich city of Kirkuk.

Iraq’s deputy prime minister Nouri Shawez, the highest-ranking Kurdish member of government, said that Maliki’s statements were ‘meant to hide the big security fiasco’.

He said that Kurds would boycott cabinet meetings until further notice.

BDST: 2144 HRS, JULY 10, 2014