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Top Iraqi Kurd refuses to meet Rice

ARBIL, Iraq, Dec 18, 2007 (AFP) - The president of Iraq's Kurdish region is refusing to meet US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was in Iraq Tuesday, because of the US position over Turkey sending soldiers into northern Iraq, a top Kurdish official said.

President Massud Barzani, who had been due to fly to Baghdad to meet Rice, will not do so in protest, Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani said.

"It was decided that Massud Barzani would go to Baghdad to take part in a meeting with Condoleezza Rice and other officials, but he will not go now as a sign of protest against the American position on the bombings by Turkey."

"It is unacceptable that the United States, in charge of monitoring our airspace, authorised Turkey to bomb our villages," he told reporters.

On Sunday, Ankara's most senior general, Yasar Buyukanit, said Turkey had received tacit US consent for the operation after Washington provided intelligence and opened up northern Iraqi airspace.

On Sunday, Turkish warplanes bombed several villages inside Iraq targeting what Ankara said were rear-bases of the rebels.

The bombings were followed by Ankara sending around 300 troops on Tuesday inside northern Iraq in the first reported incursion targeting the rebels.

Tension between Baghdad and Ankara has been high since October 21 when the rebels ambushed a Turkish military patrol and killed 12 soldiers.

Ankara has a formal approval from its parliament to launch an incursion inside northern Iraq.