Iraq promises Turkey it will curb Kurdish rebels

By Mussab Al-Khairalla

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq promised on Tuesday to close the offices of Kurdish rebels and work to prevent them launching attacks on Turkey, hoping to head off a threatened invasion to crush them by Turkish troops massed on the border.

But the government gave few details of how it could stop the rebels mounting cross-border raids from their remote mountain hideaways. And while Turkey said it would give diplomacy a chance, the publication of photographs said to show captured Turkish soldiers added to pressure on Ankara to act.

"The PKK is a terrorist organization and we have taken a decision to shut down their offices and not allow them to operate on Iraqi soil," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said.

"We will also work on limiting their terrorist activities, which are threatening Iraq and Turkey," Maliki said after crisis talks in Baghdad with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan.

Analysts say an effective Iraqi crackdown on the rebels would need to involve U.S. forces in Iraq, something Washington has so far been reluctant to agree to.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara was allowing time for a diplomatic solution, but reminded Iraq that Turkey's parliament had given the go-ahead for a military incursion at any time unless rebel attacks were halted.

"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," Erdogan told a joint news conference in London after talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

He later ratcheted up pressure by telling an investors' conference that Turkey might impose sanctions on exports to Iraq. Turkish exports to Iraq were worth $2.6 billion in 2006.