In a statement posted on the website of the Europe-based pro-Kurdish Firat news agency, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAK) called on foreign tourists to avoid Turkey "or face the consequences."

"Foreign currency brought in by tourists is the greatest resource of the Turkish state ... in its attacks against the Kurdish people," the TAK statement said.

"We declare that we will target hotels, amusement areas and tourism companies," TAK said.

This is not the first such threat by the shadowy group, but comes against a backdrop of renewed riots in mainly Kurdish-populated southeast Turkey and, more recently, Istanbul, that have so far claimed 13 lives.

Tourism, with revenues of 18.1 billion dollars (14.9 billion euros) in 2005, is a vital sector of the Turkish economy.

A number of bomb attacks, many of them claimed by TAK, have hit Turkey since July 2005, the worst of which killed five people including a Briton and an Irishwoman last year in the Aegean resort of Kusadasi.

The latest bombing claimed by TAK killed one and wounded 11 Friday in Fatih, a middle-class Istanbul neighborhood.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, claims that it has no ties with TAK, which it says is made up of renegade elements it no longer controls.

But Turkish officials insist that TAK is only a front that allows the PKK to hit soft civilian targets in its war against the central government, that has claimed more than 37,000 lives since it began in 1984.