Turkey to ask US to take concrete steps against Kurdish rebels

Oct 30, 2007, 11:18 GMT

Ankara - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday said he would ask the United States to take concrete steps to stop Kurdish rebel activity in northern Iraq.

He was speaking to parliamentary colleagues ahead of two crucial meetings with US President George W Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Erdogan said the upcoming meetings were of extreme importance and that he would be stressing that Turkey's patience is at an end.

'In the past 30 years We have given a lot of blood, a lot of martyrs,' Erdogan said.

A day after reports that three Turkish soldiers had been killed in the latest fighting with Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) rebels in southeast Turkey, Erdogan also said that military operations were continuing.

'This is not just a military matter though, there is also the political and diplomatic angle,' Erdogan said.

Rice is due to arrive in Turkey on Thursday to take part in a meeting of Iraq's neighbours while Turkey has announced that Erdogan will meet Bush in Washington next week.

The main topic on the agenda of the meetings will be Turkey's threat to launch a large-scale incursion into northern Iraq to destroy PKK bases.

The past weeks have seen a big upsurge in attacks inside Turkey on military targets by PKK rebels who had crossed into the country from mountainous northern Iraq. Almost 100 people were killed in October alone.

Erdogan also said he would be seeking an explanation as to how US weapons had fallen into the hands of PKK rebels.

Washington is concerned that any incursion by its NATO ally Turkey could destabilize the relative calm that exists in northern Iraq and may lead to clashes between Kurdish peshmergas belonging to the Kurdistan regional authority that governs northern Iraq.