Kurdish president asks for steps to organize independence referendum: MPs

ARBIL Iraq (Reuters) - The president of Iraq's autonomous ethnic Kurdish north asked the region's parliament on Thursday to form a committee to organize a referendum on independence, according to a parliament member who attended the closed session. "The president asked us to form an independent electoral commission to carry out a referendum in the Kurdistan region and determine the way forward," said lawmaker Farhad Sofi, a member of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP). President Massoud Barzani did not offer a timetable on the proposed committee's work of organizing a referendum, several Kurdish lawmakers said. (Reporting by Isabel Coles; Writing by Maggie Fick; Editing by Alison Williams)