When Ayad Tariq paces the dusty ruins of the ancient citadel towering over the disputed city of Kirkuk he sees a dazzling new tourist attraction just waiting to rise from the ruins.

"We are going to make this a tourist citadel. So a house like this could be a museum," the city's antiquities director explained as he strode through the ruins of a 19th century mansion that belonged to a wealthy Christian family.

Tariq wants visitors from around the world to see the splendours of the 4,600-year-old citadel, but the isolation imposed by Iraq's turmoil has left him working largely alone.