Sulaimaniyah (Iraq) (AFP) - Iraqi Kurdish opposition party Gorran said on Sunday its top politicians have been asked by the party of acting regional president Massud Barzani to leave the capital Arbil.

The move came amid a wave of violent protests against Barzani in southern opposition strongholds which Barzani's Kurdish Democratic Party accuses Gorran of fomenting.

The autonomous region's parliament speaker and three ministers from the Gorran party were asked by the KDP to leave the city, a statement said.

"The KDP politburo used its representatives in parliament and government to inform the president of parliament and the Gorran ministerial team that they must not attend their places of work and must leave our regional capital," Gorran's statement said.

At least four people have been killed in a string of protests that spread to most major towns in the south of the autonomous region in recent days.

The demonstrations were initially to demand payment of overdue salaries for civil servants but evolved into protests calling on Barzani, whose mandate expired in August, to step down.

Several local KDP headquarters buildings were set on fire.