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US, Iraq, agree to tackle Kurdish rebel issue

WASHINGTON, July 25, 2006 (AFP) - The United States and Iraq have agreed to "more aggressively" tackle the issue of Kurdish rebels striking at Turkey from bases inside Iraq, US national security adviser Stephen Hadley said Tuesday.

"We have already identified some steps that can be taken and that the Iraqis are going to take, which they will, I'm sure, be announcing," he said after US President George W. Bush met here with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

US officials fear that any Turkish raid on the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) -- branded a terrorist group in Ankara and Washington -- would upset the relatively calm northern area of war-torn Iraq.

Hadley said that he and aides to Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, here for talks with US President George W. Bush, discussed the issue "at length" and agreed to set up a three-way "framework" with Turkey to deal with the matter.

"We recognize the seriousness of the problem, that Turkish citizens and Turkish security forces are dying as a result of the activities of the PKK," he said. "We have proposed that it be addressed in this trilateral context, I think the Turks are comfortable with that."

"And there have to be concrete steps that we can take to show both Iraqis and Turks that there is a plan to deal with that problem, and that it is something that we have to address more aggressively," said Hadley.

Bush made those assurances to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and now "we've got to deliver," said Hadley.