Iraq approved a plan for its semi-autonomous Kurdish region to transfer oil to Baghdad, a key step toward resuming exports that have been halted for more than two years.

Baghdad and Erbil have reached a settlement that will enable the resumption of oil flows from Iraqi Kurdistan to global markets.

By Ako Rasheed SULAYMANIYAH, Iraq (Reuters) -Thirty Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants burned their weapons at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on Friday, marking a symbolic but significant step toward ending a decades-long insurgency against Turkey.

Iraq approved a plan for its semi-autonomous Kurdish region to transfer oil to Baghdad, a step toward resuming exports that have been halted for more than two years.

Fighters with a Kurdish separatist militant group that has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey began laying down their weapons in a symbolic ceremony on Friday in northern Iraq, the first concrete step toward a promised disarmament as part of a peace process.

The decision by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to lay down its arms and apparently disband has reverberated across the Kurdistan region of northern Iraq.

Turkish President Erdogan has made it clear that the agreement between Ankara and the Kurdish Workers Party was motivated by reactionary aims related to the imperialist war in the Middle East.