The visit comes at a time when Ankara has warned that it does not rule out a cross-border operation to strike at Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) bases in northern Iraq if Baghdad and Washington fail to curb the rebels.

Flying into Ankara with a 30-strong delegation, including Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and other key ministers, Maliki said security, trade and commerce would dominate his talks with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

Turkey is expected to convey to Maliki its long-standing demand for Baghdad to capture and hand over PKK members, close down organisations linked to the group and put the PKK on its list of terrorist organisations.

In a bid to secure a clear commitment to rout the PKK, Ankara recently sent Baghdad a draft cooperation agreement that entails cutting off financial and logistic support to the group, blocking its media broadcasts, allowing for the extradition of rebels and exchange of intelligence, Turkish newspapers said.

Reports said Maliki and Erdogan could ink the agreement if it is finalized, but the Iraqi prime minister suggested upon arrival that the two sides were still negotiating on the draft.

Maliki added that an Iraqi delegation would come to Turkey for more detailed talks on security issues, but did not give a date for the visit, Anatolia said.

The Turkish press quoted Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh as saying Maliki and Erdogan would make a joint declaration stressing their determination to fight terrorism.

Turkey has threatened military action in northern Iraq to hit camps of the PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and much of the international community, if Iraq and the United States fail to enact measures against the rebels.

Ankara charges that the PKK -- whose bloody campaign since 1984 for self-rule in southeast Turkey has claimed more than 37,000 lives -- enjoys free movement in northern Iraq, where it obtains weapons and explosives.

In June, the head of the Turkish land forces, Ilker Basbug, said that there were some 5,000 PKK rebels in total, an estimated 2,800 to 3,100 of them based in northern Iraq.

The PKK has notably stepped up its attacks in the east and southeast of Turkey this year and, in response, the army has reinforced its units in the region and amassed troops on the border with Iraq, fuelling speculation of an impending cross-border operation.

In the latest episode of violence, a Turkish soldier was killed and two pro-government militia were wounded in a landmine blast ovenight blamed on the PKK in the southeastern province of Hakkari.

Turkey has accused the forces of Massud Barzani, who heads northern Iraq's Kurdish region, of providing the PKK with weapons, possibly including ammunition received from the United States.

Turkey also suspects Iraqi Kurds of harbouring designs to break away from Baghdad and set up their independent state which, it fears, would embolden the PKK.

Washington has warned Ankara against a cross-border operation, wary that it may destabilise a relatively peaceful part of Iraq and fuel tensions between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds, staunch allies of the United States.

Maliki was to leave Ankara Wednesday and head for Tehran, where security issues were also expected to dominate his agenda.