By Paul Taylor

BRUSSELS, April 11 (Reuters) - The United Nations will suggest a formula next month to resolve conflicts on several disputed areas in Iraq that could serve as a template for the future of Kirkuk, a senior U.N. official said on Friday.

Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special representative in Iraq, said he would propose options by May 15 for deciding under which authority to put four disputed locations, not including Kirkuk. He declined to identify them but said they would set an example.

"This could show how Kirkuk could be handled. It is certanly a template for similar and other bigger problems," he told reporters after talks with NATO and European Union officials.

He urged NATO to step up its training of Iraqi police officers to help stabilise the country, doubling the number of recruits under training from the current 1,500.

He urged the EU to continue to support U.N. operations in Iraq financially and to use its political influence to urge the Baghdad government to pass a crucial oil law and use the improved security situation to restore public services.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will visit Brussels next week for talks with EU officials.

Kirkuk, an oil-rich northern city which lies just outside the Kurdish region but is claimed by the Kurds, is one of the most sensitive flashpoints in Iraq.

Former President Saddam Hussein, overthrown in a U.S.-led invasion in 2003, forced many of its Kurdish inhabitants out of Kirkuk and replaced them with Sunni Arabs in a systematic policy of ethnic cleansing.

BETTER IN PACKAGE

But Turkey, which once ruled the area under the Ottoman Empire and is concerned about the fate of the Turkmen minority there, has made clear it does not want to see the city and its oil resources come under the Kurdish regional government.

De Mistura said Iraq and Kurdish leaders had acted wisely in agreeing to postpone a referendum on Kirkuk's status due to have been held by the end of December, which he said could have triggered a conflict.

"What I am doing is trying to avoid a crisis," he said. An ill-prepared referendum that was not linked to a political solution could start a conflict.

Any formula for Kirkuk would be based on three criteria -- the election results of December 2005, undoing the decrees imposed by Saddam, and respecting minority rights and sharing resources.

Asked whether the promised Kirkuk referendum was off the agenda, he said: "Nothing excludes (the possibility) that one day there will be a confirmatory referendum about the formula for the various disputed localities based on concessions."

"It is easier to put it in a package where you also put it with the oil law," he said.

De Mistura said he was also urging Iraqi leaders to reach agreement with their key neighbours -- Turkey and Iran -- "in this critical period" while the United States and other international forces remain in the country.

A recent Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq to attack Kurdish PKK separatist guerrillas had forged greater unity between the Kurdish regional government and the Baghdad authorities on the need to preserve territorial integrity, he said. (editing by Ralph Boulton)

AlertNet news is provided by