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US-backed Kurdish forces took possession of the centre of northern Iraq's key oil city of Kirkuk without a fight Thursday, witnesses reported on the outskirts of the city. "The Iraqis withdrew this morning, the population rose up, then the Kurdish fighters arrived," resident Bavi Yassin said.

Saman Makhmud Abdullah added, "The Iraqis left this morning. A few peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) arrived, then the population rose up. "The pershmergas entered in numbers about a hour ago, they are now in the centre of the city." Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Thursday Ankara would take whatever measures it deemed necessary after fall of the central Kirkuk to Kurdish fighters. "We are following everything very carefully," the Anatolia news agency quoted Gul as telling reporters. "We are doing what is necessary and we will do what is necessary. Turkey's position is open and clear," he added.

Turkey has threatened to intervene militarily in northern Iraq if local Kurds seized the oil-rich cities of Mosul and Kirkuk. Ankara fears that control of local oil resources could embolden Iraqi Kurds to move towards independence, a prospect that could set an example to their restless fellow Kurds in Turkey. British and Turkish television reported on Thursday US-backed Kurdish forces have captured the northern Iraqi oil capital of Kirkuk, with the Turkish report saying that looting had broken out in the city.

"Kurdish fighters are firing into the air to celebrate their victory. Residents of Kirkuk have spilled into the streets in jubilation," correspondent Nevin Sungur of the Turkish television channel NTV said in a live telephone report from the city. "People have started looting," she said, adding that Iraqi forces had fled the city without fighting. "It seems like Kirkuk has fallen," said the BBC's correspondent, Dumeeth Luthra, though the BBC added on its teletext service that US military spokesmen could not confirm the report.

And a Sky News television correspondent, reporting live from northern Iraq, said Kurdish forces had entered Kirkuk from the south and west. Earlier Thursday, a senior Kurdish commander said that Kurdish forces pushing towards Kirkuk had seized the towns of Makhmur and Altun Kubri, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) northeast of Kirkuk. Kirkuk and the other main northern city of Mosul have been controlled by forces loyal to President Saddam Hussein, whose whereabouts remain unknown after downtown Baghdad fell Wednesday to US marines.

Both cities were the main objectives of a joint thrust by US special forces and Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq that was part of the US-led invasion of Iraq that began March 20. Turkey had repeatedly warned Iraqi Kurds to stay away from Kirkuk and the other main northern city of Mosul, fearing they are planning to move towards independence. Ankara, which has kept a military presence in northern Iraq since 1997, has threatened to send in more troops if Iraqi Kurds even attempted to take over the two cities.

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