Barzani, president of the Kurdish regional government that holds sway in northern Iraq, regretted Ankara's refusal to hold direct talks on the crisis over the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels.

"You do not speak to me, then you ask me to do things against the PKK. How can this be?" he told Turkey's Milliyet newspaper. "I am a friend of Turkey but I am not taking orders from Turkey or anyone else."

Turkey accuses Barzani's administration of tolerating and even supporting the PKK, which uses bases in northern Iraq as a springboard for attacks across the border on Turkish territory.

Turkey has built up its military presence on the border and repeatedly threatened an incursion to pursue the rebels. Its parliament approved such action -- for a period of a year -- earlier this month.

Barzani said Iraqi Kurds were worried that Turkey was using the PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, as a pretext to undermine Kurdish autonomy in northern Iraq.

Ankara has long suspected the Iraqi Kurds of designs to break away from Baghdad, a prospect that could embolden the PKK campaign in southeast Turkey, which has already claimed more than 37,000 lives.

"Why is Turkey's hostility towards Iraqi Kurdistan? Is it because we are the real problem in Ankara's eyes and not the PKK?" Barzani asked. "We want assurances from Turkey that all these military measures are not against us."

However, Barzani did say he was working for the release of eight Turkish soldiers held captive by the PKK and called on the rebels to lay down their arms.

"The PKK will either give up violence or confront not only Turkey but the whole Kurdish nation," he said.

He urged Ankara for "cooperation for a peaceful and democratic solution to the Kurdish question" and suggested Turkey consider a general amnesty for the rebels, who have waged a bloody 23-year campaign for self-rule.

"Experience shows that this problem cannot be resolved through military means," Barzani said, adding that he was ready to do his best "to prepare the ground here" for a peaceful solution.

Turkey has beefed up its forces along the Iraqi border, deploying an estimated 100,000 troops and military equipment.

Tensions along the border increased since October 21 when PKK rebels, who Turkey says sneaked from northern Iraq, ambushed a military unit and killed 12 soldiers. Eight troops were captured.