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ÌýThe judicial council of Iraq's vowed on Saturday to keep the region's law, rejecting a ruling from the federal supreme that Kurdish authorities should hand over their crude supplies.

Iraq's federal supreme court ruled in February that Kurdistan's law regulating its oil and gas industry was unconstitutional.Ìý

"The actions of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in relation to oil and gas operations are in accordance with the Iraqi constitution of 2005. The provisions of the oil and gas law issued by the parliament of the Kurdistan region in 2007 do not violate those of the Iraqi Constitution," Kurdistan's judicial council said in a statement released on Saturday.

The statement said Article 112 of the constitution, announced in August 2005, granted the federal government supervision over Kurdistan's oil and gas fields operating at that time, but that fields that started commercial production after that date did not apply to this article.

It also indicated that all fields currently operating in the region started commercial production after August 2005.

The KRG has been developing resources independently of the federal government, and in 2007 enacted its own law that established the directives by which the region would administer these resources.

[Reuters]