FACTBOX: Who are the PKK?

(Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan meet on Monday in Washington amid Turkey's threats to launch a major military incursion into northern Iraq against Kurdish militants.

Following are some facts on the PKK, the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has been staging attacks on Turkey from across the border.

* BEGINNINGS:

-- Abdullah Ocalan founded the party in 1974 and it was formally named the Kurdistan Workers Party in 1978, a Marxist-Leninist insurgent group fighting for an independent Kurdish state.

-- It earned a reputation for ruthlessness by killing members of rival groups, Kurdish "aga" landlords and pro-government tribesmen.

* FIGHT FOR A HOMELAND:

-- The PKK took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast. Nearly 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict since then.

-- Ocalan was captured and sentenced to death by a Turkish court in 1999 but the sentence was reduced to life imprisonment in October 2002 after Turkey abolished the death penalty.

-- Fighting dwindled after Ocalan's capture and it also led to a cease-fire and the withdrawal of rebel fighters from Turkey.