Iraqi President and Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani said on Friday that "an independent Kurdistan will not survive," due to its landlocked character and opposition of neighboring countries Turkey, Syria and Iran.

"Think about for a moment that these countries will not attack us but close their border gates. How are we going to survive? Yes we have oil but how are we going to export our oil?" Talabani said in an interview with the American magazine The New Yorker.

He also said that it is almost for sure that once Iraqi Kurdistan administration will claim independence, Iraq will never accept this and neighboring countries Iran, Syria and Turkey will launch attacks, which they can not resist.

Talabani also underlined that any wise Kurdish leader will not go for Kurdish independence under these conditions.

His remarks followed increasing worries in Turkey and neighboring countries on a scheduled referendum for the future status of oil rich northern city of Kirkuk.

The city has an ethnically mixed population with Kurds, Turkmen and Arabs. Both Turkmen and Arabs have accused the Kurds of trying to make the city part of the Iraqi Kurdistan region. The Iraqi Turkmens claim to have historically the majority in the city.

Turkey is concerned that the referendum would bring Kirkuk under Kurdish rule, since hundreds of thousands of Kurds have moved to the city in the recent years in what Turkey sees as a systematic campaign to change the demographic structure of the city to guarantee a favorable outcome in the upcoming referendum.

Kurdish rule over Kirkuk, which sits over 6 percent of the world's known oil reserves, would boost prospects for the Kurds to establish an independent state next to Turkey's southern borders.

Holbrooke meets Turkish PM

In related news, a veteran U.S. diplomat Richard Holbrook met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan on Friday where Iraq was one of the main topics. Prime Ministry sources said that Holbrook was also scheduled to visit northern Iraq and meet Kurdish leaders.

The New Anatolian / Ankara