title: Kurdistan region asks international help to spur dialogue with Baghdad
text: BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq welcomed on Thursday a call by Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi for talks to resolve a crisis triggered by a Kurdish referendum on independence last month. Abadi spoke on Tuesday, saying he considered the Sept. 25 referendum, in which Kurds voted overwhelmingly for independence despite Baghdad s opposition,  a thing of the past . The day before, the Iraqi army retook the oil-producing Kirkuk area from Kurdish Peshmerga forces on his orders.  It will not be possible to resolve the issues through military operations,  the KRG cabinet said in a statement after a meeting in the Kurdistan region capital Erbil.  (We have) asked the international community to help both sides start a dialogue to solve the outstanding issues based on the Iraqi constitution,  the statement said.   Abadi had asked that the KRG cancel the outcome of the referendum as a precondition for negotiations to begin.  The statement made no mention of the referendum, for which Baghdad retaliated with a series of punitive measures including the recapture of Kirkuk, which lies just outside KRG boundaries but had been in Peshmerga hands since 2014. 