The Los Angeles Times is reporting an oil deal signed by the Kurdistan Democratic Party could raise a serious dispute within the interim Iraqi government. Last month, the KDP signed an agreement with Norwegian oil company DNO to drill for oil in Zakho, a border city in the northern Kurdish region. Officials say the deal is the first to involve new Iraq oil exploration since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003. At a ceremony to announce the deal, the prime minister of the northern Kurdish region said “there is no way Kurdistan would accept that the central government will control our resources.” A top Iraqi official said the government is looking into the legality of the deal. Control over Iraq’s oil resources is one of the key issues at the heart of Iraq’s sectarian divide. Sunni Arabs fear they’ll be cut off from oil-rich Kurdish areas to the north and Shiite areas to the south.