Iraq, anxious to avert a Turkish military strike into its territory, pledged today to rein in Kurdish separatists who are launching attacks on Turkey from northern Iraq.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan
Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari, after crisis talks in Baghdad with his Turkish counterpart, Ali Babacan, said Iraq would restrict the movement of PKK rebels and target their funding.
It was not clear whether this would be enough to placate Turkey, which wants an end to cross-border attacks.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara was giving diplomacy a chance, but reminded Iraq that Turkey's parliament had given the mandate for a military incursion at any time.
"Right now we are in a waiting stance but Iraq should know we can use the mandate for a cross-border operation at any time," he told a joint news conference in London after talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Mr Zebari told Babacan that Iraq was ready to curb the PKK and halt their attacks.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan
"I assured the minister that the Iraqi government will actively help Turkey to overcome this menace," Mr Zebari, himself a Kurd, told a news conference. "We will not allow any party, including the PKK, to poison our bilateral relations."
He said Iraq would send a security and political delegation to Turkey for more talks. "We will cooperate with the Turkish government, to solve the border problems and the terrorism that Turkey is facing through direct dialogue," he added.
Mr Babacan later met Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, also a Kurd, and said Iraq had promised to "support Turkey in fighting terrorism".
He said PKK fighters were terrorists just like insurgent groups fighting Iraqi and US forces. "We cannot say there are good terrorists and bad terrorists," Mr Babacan said.
Turkey's government says it will exhaust all diplomatic channels before launching any strike into northern Iraq to root out the PKK separatists, 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.
But Mr Babacan said the Turkish people were losing patience and wanted action.
A military incursion into northern Iraq would destabilise 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.
Turkey has built up its forces along the border with Iraq in preparation for a possible attack on rebel bases, although Mr 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," Mr Erdogan said during a speech in Oxford, England, on Monday.