"The KRG welcomes direct dialogue with Ankara on all issues of common interest or concern, including the PKK," the Kurdistan Regional Government said, referring to the rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

"An incursion would be detrimental to all Iraq, to Turkey and the Middle East," the autonomous administration said in a statement on its website.

Implicitly denouncing the actions of the PKK, which has bases in northern Iraq, the Kurdish authorities in Arbil condemned "the killing of innocent people in Turkey," and said violence did not solve any problems.

The appeal came a day after the Iraqi central government said the PKK issue was one of national security and that all statements should come from Baghdad.

The PKK has waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984 that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

Turkey says the PKK -- blacklisted as a terror group by both the European Union and the United States -- enjoys freedom of movement in northern Iraq and is tolerated if not supported by the regional government, something the latter strongly denies.

"PKK members are present in the Kurdistan region but the regional government is preventing them from carrying out any attacks against Turkish targets," senior Iraqi Kurdish lawmaker Mahmud Othman told AFP on Wednesday.