A high-level delegation from Baghdad on Friday held talks with Turkish leaders to prevent a military incursion into Iraq, but analysts said an active role was needed from Iraqi Kurdish leaders.

The Iraqi delegation which has two members from northern Iraq's two Kurdish parties said it travelled with "concrete proposals" to resolve the turmoil threatening northern Iraq, the only peaceful area in the war-ravaged country.

"Talks between Ankara and Iraqi Kurds would be a good idea," Joost Hiltermann, Middle East director at the International Crisis Group think-tank told AFP by telephone from Istanbul.

"The Iraqi Kurdish parties can help in solving the issue, though they would not be able to dislodge the rebels from the mountains. But they can make life difficult for them by restricting their movements."

The rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who are fighting for a self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984 live in the rugged Qandil mountains along the Iraq-Turkey-Iran border.

Several previous military incursions by Turkey into the mountains have failed to flush out the rebels but Ankara has threatened a fresh operation if Baghdad and Washington fail to crack down on the rebels.

Iraqi Kurdish leaders with their own former guerrilla fighters, the peshmerga, and their ethnic links with the rebels stand a better chance to remove the PKK fighters from their hideouts, analysts and deputies told AFP.

"Ankara has to understand that it is the Kurdish parties who can influence the PKK," said Kurdish lawmaker Mahmud Othman.

"I do not know what concrete proposals Baghdad is offering to Ankara but one political way to solve the crisis is a general amnesty to PKK rebels as not all of the PKK people in the mountains are criminals."

An amnesty would help these inhabitants to return to their countries, he said, adding that Ankara's refusal to talk directly with the Iraqi Kurds was aggravating the crisis.

"How much can Baghdad do? Turkey does not want Kurdish parties to participate which means they do not want a Kurdish solution," he said.

Othman said Ankara's demand that Baghdad hand over PKK leaders and even some Iraqi Kurds was also aggravating the situation along with Washington's support for Turkey.

"Even my name is on the list of Iraqi Kurds that Turkey wants," the MP said.

Hiltermann said the PKK crisis was an "irritant" for Washington which uses the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey to supply its forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Washington does not want to take action in northern Iraq as it would upset the Iraqi Kurds who are its allies, and Turkey too is an important ally," he said.

Hiltermann said any help by Iraqi Kurds would not come free of charge.

"The Iraqi Kurds could help the US in return for something like a referendum on Kirkuk," he said, referring to northern Iraq's volatile city claimed by both Iraq's Kurds and Arabs.

The Iraqi constitution stipulates that a referendum on Kirkuk must be held before the end of the year but it seems unlikely to go ahead due to the overall security situation in Iraq.

"The issue is a conundrum," said Hiltermann, adding that Ankara refuses to talk to Iraqi Kurds as it treats Iraq as a "sovereign country."

"It (Ankara) would not talk to a regional administration that can break off," he said, highlighting the virtual autonomy enjoyed by the Iraqi Kurds in the north.

Ankara is also against oil-rich Kirkuk being incorporated into the Kurdish region of Iraq as it fears such a move would further boost the rebellion against Turkey.

But Iraqi Kurds insisted they have to be part of the process to end the crisis.

"We insist on that (negotiations with Ankara) because we are partners in the government of Iraq," said Mohammed Mulla Qadir, political bureau member of the Kurdish Democratic Party of Massud Barzani, the president of Iraqi Kurdistan.

"The time of marginalising the Kurds has gone," he said stressing that any solution in the absence of Kurdish participation would not be supported by the Iraqi Kurds.