ARBIL, Iraq – U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz has held talks in Iraqi Kurdistan with officials of the two Kurdish groups that control northern Iraq, a party spokesman said Monday.

Wolfowitz's talks on Sunday focused on "how the situation in Iraq was developing and the importance of the Kurdish role in restoring democracy in the country," a Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) spokesman told AFP.

KDP chief Massoud Barzani and officials from the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), whose leader Jalal Talabani is overseas, attended the talks in Salaheddin, the spokesman said.

Barzani and Talabani both hold seats on the U.S.-appointed 25-member transitional Governing Council for post-war Iraq.