Iraq vows to rein in rebel Kurds

Baghdad: Iraq pledged on Tuesday to crack down on Kurdish separatists launching attacks on Turkey from hideouts in northern Iraq, in a bid to avert a Turkish military
incursion onto its territory to hit the rebels.

Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said after crisis talks with his Turkish counterpart Ali Babacan in Baghdad that Iraq would restrict the movement of PKK rebels and target their
funding. But it was not clear whether this would be enough to placate Turkey, which wants an end to cross-border attacks.

"I assured the minister that the Iraqi government will actively help Turkey to overcome this menace," Zebari, himself a Kurd, told a news conference. "We will not allow any party, including the PKK, to poison our bilateral relations."

"We will cooperate with the Turkish government, to solve the border problems and the terrorism that Turkey is facing through direct dialogue," he added.

Zebari said Iraq would send a security and political delegation to Turkey soon for more talks.

Babacan said Turkey could use several options to fight terrorism, including "economic tools, cultural tools, diplomacy and military action". "We have to use any of these tools with a certain strategy, with a certain timing," he said.

Turkey's government says it will exhaust all diplomatic channels before launching a military strike into northern Iraq to root out the separatist PKK guerrillas, who killed at least a dozen Turkish soldiers in fighting at the weekend. The easing in rhetoric helped bring global oil prices down from record highs.

A military incursion into northern Iraq would destabilize Iraq's autonomous Kurdish enclave, the only region of the country that has seen relative stability and prosperity since
US forces overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Babacan was to hold talks later with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki and President Jalal Talabani -- also a Kurd.

Turkey has built up its forces along the border with Iraq in preparation for a possible attack on rebel bases, although Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has pressed Iraq to curb the PKK first.

"If expected developments do not take place in the next few days, we will have to take care of our own situation," Erdogan said during a speech in Oxford, England, on Monday.

US President George W. Bush expressed "deep concern" on Monday about Kurdish rebel attacks and told Turkish President Abdullah Gul the United States would continue to urge Iraq's government to act against the PKK rebels, the White House said.

Bush also agreed with Maliki to work with Turkey to stop the PKK from carrying out attacks from Iraq.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Britain's visiting foreign secretary, David Miliband, said they had proposed a meeting in Istanbul next month of officials from the United States, Turkey and Iraq to discuss how to stop the attacks.

Erdogan was holding talks with his British counterpart Gordon Brown in London on Tuesday.