Kurdish parties in northern Iraq will soon convene a meeting at which they will issue a joint appeal to the rebels "to abandon their armed struggle and join the democratic political process," Talabani, a Kurd, told Turkey's Aksam daily.

"Let me put it very clearly: we, the Iraqi Kurds, will no longer allow armed people from any Kurdish group to use our territory to carry out attacks on Turkey or Iran," Talabani said. "We will take the necessary measures."

The Iraqi president, however, stressed that the Iraqi Kurds would not fight the rebels, adding: "You will see that the problem can be resolved without fighting."

Hundreds of militants from the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a bloody campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey, and its sister group in Iran, PJAK, are based in the mountains of northern Iraq.

Ankara has often accused the Iraqi Kurds, who run an autonomous administration in northern Iraq, of tolerating and even aiding the rebels.

Turkish warplanes have since last year bombed PKK hideouts in the region and the Iranian military has also often targetted the militants.

Talabani said relations with Turkey were of "strategic" importance for Iraq, stressing that all Iraqi groups were "irked by the PKK attacks against Turkey" and shared "an absolute understanding" on improving ties with Ankara.

"The PKK must know that it has reached a dead end," he told Aksam.

"The Turkish government, for its part, should take steps to encourage" the militants to lay down their arms, he said, without elaborating.

Ankara has warm ties with the central government in Baghdad, but tensions over the safe haven the PKK enjoys in northern Iraq havee often cast a shadow on bilateral relations.

Last month, Iraq, Turkey and the United States agreed to form a joint committee to track the threat posed by the PKK and enact measures to stop its activities.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is due to visit Turkey and Iran this week.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, took up arms in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 44,000 lives.