ANKARA, Nov 1 (AFP) - 12h59 - Turkey and the United States have entered a "new era" in combatting Turkish Kurd rebels holed up in the mountains of neighbouring northern Iraq, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Tuesday.
"Let me tell you that we have entered a new era," Gul told a press conference here when asked if Washington had plans to move against rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Iraq, as called for by Ankara.
"They (the US administration) are aware of how high expectations are over here," Gul said, expressing hope that the results of the new phase in anti-terror cooperation would become public soon.
"One cannot expect to reap the fruit in the cooperation against terrorism at once," he added.
Turkey has long criticised the United States for failing to act against PKK rebels who have found refuge in northern Iraq since 1999.
Ankara has even threatened cross-border incursions to hunt down the rebels while Washington has failed to commit itself to immediate military action and argued for drying up PKK's financial resources as a first measure.
The PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey as well as both the United States and the European Union, has stepped up anti-government violence in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast after calling off a five-year unilateral ceasefire in June 2004.
Most recently the rebels called off a six-week unilateral ceasefire last month.
More than 37,000 have been killed since 1984 when the PKK launched an armed campaign for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey's southeast.
