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TURKEY - Turkey said it would exhaust diplomatic channels before launching any military strike into northern Iraq to root out Kurdish rebels, who killed at least a dozen Turkish soldiers in fighting over the weekend.
Turkey has built up its forces along the border with Iraq in preparation for an incursion against rebel bases but Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has said he will hold off for a few days to let the United States try to curb the Kurdish separatists.
Washington, in turn, urged the Iraqi government on Monday to act swiftly to stop Kurdish guerrillas from mounting further attacks in Turkey.
"We do not want to see wider military action on the northern border," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.
Washington and Baghdad have been calling on Nato-member Turkey to refrain from a major military push into the largely autonomous Kurdish region, one of the few relatively stable areas of Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003.
The office of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, told Reuters the PKK would announce a ceasefire on Monday evening.
In a statement received by Reuters in Baghdad, the PKK said it was ready to "extend the hand of peace" to Turkey if Ankara stopped its military operations against Kurdish fighters.
The PKK is ready to "extend the hand of peace again and we are ready for dialogue with others to solve the issue," the statement said. "But if Turkey continues with its hostile position against (the) Kurdish people, we will defend ourselves and our people."
Erdogan is under public and military pressure to strike in Iraq against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels, who have killed some 40 Turkish soldiers in the past month.
After speaking to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday, Erdogan agreed to hold off for a few days and he left for an official visit to Britain on Monday.
Erdogan has been resisting a cross-border operation and his foreign minister, Ali Babacan, said: "We will try all diplomatic means before carrying out any military operation."
Babacan planned to travel to Baghdad on Tuesday for talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and other senior officials, diplomats said, adding the schedule could change.
The decades-long fight against the PKK, which wants an independent homeland in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq, is highly emotive.
The pro-PKK Firat news agency said eight Turkish soldiers had been captured and gave the names of seven men. Turkey has denied any of its soldiers were captured, but confirmed eight of its soldiers were missing after the fighting.
"Turkish armed forces continue to search the region" for the soldiers, Erdogan told reporters. "Clashes continue."
The Turkish lira currency and Istanbul's share index fell 3 per cent on Monday on concerns about a major offensive.
Turkey's tougher stance has helped propel global oil prices to record highs over the past week. The PKK has said it might target pipelines carrying Iraqi and Caspian crude across Turkey.
The General Staff said 12 soldiers died in Sunday's fighting and 34 rebels had been killed in an army offensive backed up by attack helicopters and artillery over the past two days.
Turkey has deployed as many as 100,000 troops, backed by tanks, F-16 fighter jets and helicopter gunships along its border with Iraq.
A Reuters reporter said he heard heavy artillery fire in the mountains of Sirnak province. Army trucks transporting artillery and other weaponry were heading towards the border.
Turkey estimates 3000 PKK rebels are based in Iraq. Ankara believes US occupying forces in Iraq could, if they wanted, capture PKK leaders hiding in the Qandil mountains, shut down their camps and cut off supply routes and logistics support.
But Washington is hesitant, as such moves could destabilise Iraq's Kurdish region and hurt the regional authority there if it looked as if it were siding with Turkey against Kurds.
Baghdad has little control over the largely autonomous northern region led Iraqi Kurdish leader Masoud Barzani.
"Somebody's got to lean on the Iraqi Kurds, and only the US can lean on the Iraqi Kurds," said Bulent Aliriza, director of Turkey Project at Centre for Strategic and International Studies. "The pressures on Erdogan to act are increasing literally by the hour."
In Ankara, some 8000 students joined an anti-PKK rally on Monday, one of many staged in the past 24 hours in the Muslim country of 75 million. Opposition leader Deniz Baykal repeated his demand for an urgent cross-border operation.
Turkey's parliament overwhelmingly backed a government motion last week to carry out a major offensive if so required.
- REUTERS
