The demand was among measures Erdogan asked his Iraqi counterpart Nuri al-Maliki to take against the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in a letter dated September 11, the statement said.

"Erdogan has conveyed to his counterpart Turkey's strong expectation that concrete measures will be put into place with determination in the shortest time," it added.

The PKK is considered a terrorist group by Ankara as well as the European Union and the United States.

Among Erdogan's demands were the closing of all PKK-affiliated offices in Iraq, a measure which Baghdad announced Tuesday it will take.

The Turkish leader also asked that the PKK rebels be stopped from penetrating the border into Turkey.

Thousands of PKK rebels have found a safe haven in Kurdish-held northern Iraq since 1999 when the group declared a unilateral ceasefire and moved out of Turkey following the arrest of its leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Turkey has repeatedly complained that Iraq and the United States are too passive in the face of PKK rebels, who have been using bases in northern Iraq for mounting increasing attacks against Turkish targets across the border since they called off the truce in 2004.

Turkey charges that PKK rebels enjoy unrestricted movement in northern Iraq and are easily able to obtain weapons and explosives.

It has for long pressed Iraqi and US officials to arrest leading PKK members based there.

But both Baghdad and Washington have been reluctant to crack down on the rebels, arguing that they are swamped by violence in other parts of the country.

Growing impatient, Ankara has even threatened a cross-border operation to attack PKK camps in Iraq, a move which Washington has opposed on the grounds that joint action by Iraq, Turkey and the United States would produce better results.

More than 37,000 people have been killed since 1984 when the PKK picked up arms for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey's southeastern corner.