The protest and a similar rally in southern Iraq on Wednesday in which a teenager died were Iraq's most violent since a wave of Arab revolts broke out last month that have toppled the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt.

In a bid to head off the protests, Baghdad has pledged to slash the salaries of MPs and ministers and also postponed the planned purchase of US F-16 fighters, diverting the funds to purchase food for the needy.

Around 3,000 people, most of them under 30, marched on Thursday to the headquarters of the two dominant political parties in the autonomous Kurdish region's city of Sulaimaniyah, northern Iraq.

"We are here against corruption, which is spreading throughout the region, and we demand those responsible be punished," said 27-year-old Hassan Karim, a university student.

After throwing rocks at the local offices of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) of regional president Massud Barzani, the protesters attempted to storm the building, prompting security forces to fire into the air, an AFP journalist at the scene said.

"We have received two dead bodies, both of them with gunshots," said Raykot Hama Rashid, the head of Sulaimaniyah province's health department. He said 56 others were wounded, all men, and that the two killed were aged 18 and 25.

After the violence, Sulaimaniyah provincial governor Behroz Hama Salah declared a curfew running for 12 hours from 7 pm.

For decades, the KDP and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan of Iraq's President Jalal Talabani have lorded over the region, comprised of three provinces, and such protests are rare.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said peaceful protests were the right of all Iraqis in the war-battered country but warned that those inciting violence would be brought to justice.

"I welcome those who demonstrate peacefully for their legitimate rights, but I am not in favour of those who exploit those claims to incite riots," he told a news conference in Baghdad.

"The perpetrators will be brought to court and they will be punished."

He urged demonstrators "not to allow infiltrators to transform their legitimate protests into riots," singling out rallies in and around the southern cities of Nasiriyah and Kut.

On Wednesday in Kut, where the teenager was shot dead by private guards, three government buildings were set ablaze.

Protests against corruption, high unemployment and poor basic services such as electricity and water have escalated across Iraq as it struggles to rebuild the economy and infrastructure after nearly three decades of war and sanctions.

In addition to the demonstration in Sulaimaniyah, dozens rallied outside Nasiriyah and hundreds protested in the southern port city of Basra.

A top Iraqi official, meanwhile, has said the government is pushing forward plans to slash the salaries of senior politicians.

Ali al-Alaak, the cabinet secretary general, has said an upcoming bill will cut Maliki's own salary by nearly two-thirds and almost halve those of MPs and ministers, resulting in annual savings of more than $19 million.

And on Monday, government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Baghdad was putting off the purchase of fighter planes, freeing up $900 million for its ration card programme.

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