EU's Solana warns Turkey against Iraq incursion

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union's foreign policy chief warned EU candidate Turkey on Thursday against a possible military incursion into northern Iraq to fight Kurdish rebels using the region as a base.

"Any possibility of complicating even more the security situation in Iraq is something that should not be welcome and therefore that's the message that we passed to our Turkish friends," Javier Solana told reporters.

Analysts say a large Turkish cross-border incursion remains unlikely, but Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government will seek authorization for it after a public holiday which ends on Sunday, a ruling party member told Reuters.

A major military incursion into northern Iraq would strain ties with the United States and the European Union and could undermine regional stability.

Intervention would strengthen the hand of opponents of Turkey's accession, including French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The executive European Commission, which heads the accession talks, is due to issue a report next month on Turkey's progress on meeting EU membership criteria.

Erdogan is under pressure to act tough against the rebels. He is also under pressure following approval by the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee of a resolution calling the 1915 massacres of Armenians in the closing years of the Ottoman empire a genocide.

Armenian President Robert Kocharyan, who spoke at a joint briefing after talks with Solana, welcomed the U.S. bill and said he hoped it would lead to full recognition by the United States of an Armenian genocide.

Solana said the EU would like to see reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey.