"We have called on the PKK to free the Turkish soldiers as they are ordinary soldiers who have not chosen to fight against them, but were forced to do so by the government of Turkey," said Jabar Yawar, the deputy minister for peshmerga, the security force of Iraq's northern Kurdish regional government.

"We have also requested their release on purely humanitarian grounds, because these soldiers are expected by their families" back home.

Last Saturday PKK rebels attacked a Turkish military patrol along the Iraq-Turkey border, killing 12 soldiers and taking eight more hostage. The seized men are reportedly being held in Turkey.

Yawar said the situation on the Iraq-Turkey border had been quiet for 48 hours.

"We do not want in any way to interfere in this issue" between the PKK and Turkey, he said.

"We have learned now with the experiences of Palestine, Sudan, Somalia and others that such issues are not resolved by war or fighting, which is why we recommend that the PKK abandon their fight and struggle politically and diplomatically instead."

A high-level delegation from Baghdad is currently in Ankara negotiating ways to avert a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq aimed at flushing out the PKK rebels.