"Everybody knows that this problem cannot be solved through war and violence...More blood will be shed if military options are used as the sole means of finding a solution," Barzani said in an interview with Turkey's mass-circulation Sabah newspaper.

Ankara's plans of introducing reforms to boost the rights and freedoms of its Kurds could be key to ending the 25-year conflict with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), Barzani said.

"Turkey's initiative could open the way for a solution," Barzani said. "Once the problem moves toward a solution, the PKK will have to lay down arms. It will not be able to pursue an armed struggle. The public will not support it."

The Kurdish leader added that he was ready to assist Turkey in its efforts to end the violence, saying that the PKK was a threat to regional security.

Thousands of PKK rebels are holed up in the autonomous north of Iraq, which is under Barzani's control, using the region as a springboard for attacks on Turkish targets as part of their campaign for self-rule in southeastern Turkey.

Some 45,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

Ankara had often accused the Iraqi Kurds of tolerating and even aiding the rebels, but in a major policy shift last year, it said it would seek to resolve the issue through cooperation with Baghdad and Iraq's Kurds.

The Turkish government's planned "democracy package" coincides with a peace plan that jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan is expected to announce on August 15.

Last month, the PKK announced that it had extended a unilateral truce by six weeks until September 1 in anticipation of its leader's proposals and to help settle the conflict.

Ankara rejects dialogue with the PKK, which it lists as a terrorist organisation, and has never formally recognised any of the rebel truces.

In a bid to improve its chances of winning membership of the European Union, Ankara has in recent years introduced a range of cultural rights for Kurds, but it has come under fire for failing to draw up a clear strategy to encourage the PKK to abandon its armed struggle.