Turkey says no timetable for Iraq pullout

By Ahmed Rasheed and Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Turkey said on Wednesday it had "no timetable" to withdraw troops fighting Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq, resisting pressure from the United States and other allies to end the offensive quickly.

Thousands of Turkish troops crossed the border last Thursday to root out PKK fighters. The PKK has used remote mountainous northern Iraq as a base in their armed campaign for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.

"Our objective is clear, our mission is clear and there is no timetable until ... those terrorist bases are eliminated," Turkish envoy Ahmet Davutoglu told a news conference after talks in Baghdad with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari.

Davutoglu, chief foreign policy adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, was sent to Baghdad to explain Ankara's position on the offensive. He also met top U.S. officials in Iraq, including military commander General David Petraeus.

Acting Iraqi Prime Minister Barham Saleh said a prolonged Turkish operation would lead to "dire" consequences for the region and repeated Baghdad's demand that the incursion end.

"This would be highly destabilizing, it's dangerous to the stability of Iraq and the region as a whole," Saleh, a Kurd, told Reuters on the sidelines of an economic conference.

Turkey's military General Staff said another 77 Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels had been killed in heavy fighting since Tuesday night, taking the death toll among the rebels to 230 since Turkey's offensive began.

Military sources in southeast Turkey said several hundred Turkish soldiers were ferried across the border by helicopter into northern Iraq early on Wednesday evening.

They said there were also reports of heavy clashes in the area near PKK camps in Zap and Haftanin early in the evening, with the guerrillas putting up stiff resistance.

The United States and the European Union have expressed concern. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who arrived in Turkey to meet Turkish officials on Thursday, said Turkey must limit its operations to days rather than months.

"It's very important that the Turks make this operation as short as possible and then leave, and to be mindful of Iraqi sovereignty," Gates told reporters in New Delhi before leaving for the previously scheduled trip to Ankara.

"I measure quick in terms of days, a week or two, something like that. Not months."

WEATHER A FACTOR

Turkish state-run Anatolian news agency earlier reported troops, backed up by helicopter gunships, had been reinforced along the Iraqi border to stop PKK guerrillas fleeing into Turkey in the offensive, which has been slowed by heavy snow.

Turkish warplanes bombed PKK hideouts in the mountainous Siladze area of northern Iraq, the agency said.