Turkish commandos secure the area before crossing a river during an operation to chase Kurdish rebels in the rugged mountains of southeastern Turkey, near the Iraqi border, yesterday. Turkey's government was under intense public pressure yesterday to launch a major cross-border operation to crush Kurdish guerrillas operating from northern Iraq, after they killed 17 Turkish soldiers. - Reuters

SIRNAK, Turkey (Reuters):

Turkey said yesterday it would exhaust diplomatic channels before launching any military strike into northern Iraq to root out Kurdish rebels, who killed at least a dozen Turkish soldiers in fighting over the weekend.

Turkey has built up its forces along the border with Iraq in preparation for an incursion against rebel bases, but Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has said he will hold off for a few days to let the United States try to curb the Kurdish separatists.

Washington, in turn, urged the Iraqi Government yesterday to act swiftly to stop Kurdish guerrillas from mounting further attacks in Turkey.

"We do not want to see wider military action on the northern border," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.

Washington and Baghdad have been calling on NATO-member Turkey to refrain from a major military push into the largely autonomous Kurdish region, one of the few, relatively, stable areas of Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

The office of the Iraqi President, Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, told Reuters the PKK would announce a ceasefire yesterday evening.

Erdogan is under intense pressure, from his powerful military and the public, to strike in Iraq against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels, who have killed some 40 Turkish soldiers in the past month.

After speaking with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Sunday, Erdogan agreed to hold off for a few days and he left for an official visit to Britain on Monday.

Erdogan has been resisting a cross-border operation and his foreign minister, Ali Babacan, was quoted yesterday as saying: "We will try all diplomatic means before carrying out any military operation."

But, the decades-long fight against the PKK, which wants an independent homeland in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq, is highly emotive.

( L - R ) Erdogan, Talabani