"I will not do anything without them assuring my security, my health and my liberty," it quoted Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) leader Ocalan, jailed since 1999, as saying.

"Both parties (the government and the PKK he leads from prison) use me for their own interests. I am putting an end to this intermediary role. There can be no peace negotiations under the current conditions," Ocalan said.

Despite a series of EU-inspired reforms to broaden their rights, Kurds are frustrated that a government initiative of reconciliation, announced last year, has so far been inconclusive.

Officials, who oppose Kurdish demands for autonomy, have had sporadic contacts with Ocalan on the prison island of Imrali, where he is serving a life sentence.

Talking to the PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, carries the risk of a nationalist backlash in a country where many see the group as a public enemy number one and hold it responsible for the some 45,000 deaths on both sides.

Earlier this week, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said there was "dissent" in the PKK and claimed Ocalan no longer had effective control over the rebels.