Turkish PM urges Baghdad to take action against Kurdish rebels

ROME (AFP) — Baghdad can forestall a Turkish invasion of northern Iraq against Kurdish separatists if it takes "urgent" action, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview published Monday.

"If the Iraq government took urgent and permanent measures against the PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) in Iraqi territory," Ankara could decide against threatened military action to counter cross-border attacks by the PKK, he told the Italian daily La Stampa.

The Turkish parliament, after attacks killed 15 Turkish soldiers in three days, voted October 17 to authorise the army to conduct military incursions against PKK bases in northern Iraq.

"Turkey has never stopped diplomatic and political negotiations with Baghdad," said Erdogan, who was to hold crucial talks on Monday with US President George W. Bush at the White House.

But, he warned, "the Turkish people have run out of patience."

In an ...