The Iraqi Interior Ministry Sunday officially asked the Kurdish regional interior ministry to hand over wanted Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi and 14 of his aides and guards.

"The Interior Ministry (of Baghdad) demand Kurdistan's interior (ministry) to implement the order of the Iraqi judiciary and its examining magistrates to hand over Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi and his 14 aides in accordance with the arrest warrants issued ( earlier) under the article 4 of the counter-terrorism law," the ministry said in a statement.

Soon after the U.S. troops fully withdrew from Iraq late last year, Iraq plunged into serious political row as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki sought to arrest his political rival Traqi al- Hashimi, a leading member of the Sunni-backed political bloc of Iraqia, over terror charges.

Hashimi, who resorted to the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan, rejected the accusations against him that he was running a death squad and said that he is ready to face trial on condition that it is held in Iraq's northern Kurdish region.

"I confirm my readiness to face a trial," Hashimi told reporters in Arbil, the capital of Iraq's northern Kurdish region.

"The atmosphere of investigation in this case in not normal," Hashimi said, suggesting that the case be transferred to the Kurdish region.

The Iraqi Judicial Council, the highest body in the country's judicial system, refused to transfer the case to Kurdistan as the region has its own independent judicial system. Hashimi's Iraqia bloc, again, demanded his case be transferred to the city of Kirkuk or Khanaqin, as the Kurds have a sort of influence in these two cities in order to balance the influence of Maliki's Shiite authorities.

Kirkuk and Khanaqin are part of the disputed areas between Baghdad and Kurdistan as the Kurds want to incorporate them into their semi-autonomous Kurdish enclave.