The American and Iraqi positions did not completely coincide, however. The White House said both Iraq and Iran should stay out of the conflict, while Iraq warned against involvement by Iran.
The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, which is battling a Kurdish faction allied with Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, said yesterday that it was marching closer to Irbil, northern Iraq's principal city.
However, there was no indication that PUK fighters planned an assault on the city - which is fortified by Iraqi tanks - or that Iraq was planning to intercede.
On Sunday, PUK rebels seized the key city of Sulaymaniyah, but the group's leader, Jalal Talabani, said he was reluctant to take on Saddam's powerful military.
"We have no plans at present to retake Irbil because it's surrounded by Iraqi tanks," Talabani was quoted as telling the London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat on Sunday.
The rival Kurdistan Democratic Party captured Irbil with the help of Saddam's army Aug. 31 and went on to seize virtually the entire Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Iraq's assistance prompted the United States to retaliate with cruise missiles.
Iraq has urged the two Kurdish groups to resolve their problems through talks and sternly warned the advancing faction against "dealing with foreign powers," a reference to the PUK's ties to Iran.
Meanwhile, U.S. officials spoke to both Kurdish factions, also urging them to end the fighting.
"We see no constructive role for either Iraq or Iran in this conflict," White House spokesperson David Johnson said.
A statement by Talabani's rebels, faxed to The Associated Press yesterday, said they routed their Iraqi-backed rivals from six districts between Sulaymaniyah and Irbil.
The statement also said PUK forces entered the town of Halabja, east of Sulaymaniyah, and rebuffed a major KDP attack.
The KDP, for its part, claimed Iran had "entered the war" and that thousands of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, backed by artillery, had pushed through the border into Iraq.
KDP official Sami Abdurrahman claimed yesterday that "there has been open Iranian aggression on our country," involving more than 15,000 Revolutionary Guards who crossed the border into Iraq.
The PUK denied the allegation, as did the Iranian Foreign Ministry. Iranian government spokesman Mahmoud Mohammadi said the claim was meant to "pacify international forums regarding (KDP leader Massoud) Barzani's collaboration with the Iraqi army."
The Iraqi government said it was prepared to invite all parties to peace talks in the capital, Baghdad.
The PUK and KDP have long been at loggerheads. The KDP accuses the PUK of maintaining close links with Persian Iran, Iraq's non-Arab neighbor, while the KDP favors a more conciliatory approach with the Iraqi government in resolving Kurdish demands for autonomy.
Western countries created the northern safe area to protect the Kurds from Saddam's military after the 1991 Persian Gulf War; since then, the two groups have mostly quarreled with each other.
The United States mediated a cease-fire last year, but it collapsed Aug. 17.
In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, a British envoy said Britain would hold talks between the two Kurdish factions. Jeremy Hanley, minister of state for foreign and Commonwealth affairs, said London also would urge the factions not to cooperate with Saddam's government.