"We discussed the need to accelerate cooperation against the PKK," he said, referring to the Kurdistan Workers' Party, an armed separatist group listed as a terrorist organization by Ankara and much of the international community.

"I conveyed our demand for concrete steps aimed at getting results," Erdogan told a pressconference after talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

The PKK has long used bases in the mountains of neighboring northern Iraq as a springboard for cross-border attacks in Turkey.

Ankara says the rebels enjoy unrestricted movement and easily obtain weapons and explosives in the region, which is under the control of Iraqi Kurds.

"Iraq will never be a shelter (for people) threatening the security of neighboring countries," Maliki said, recalling that in September, Baghdad had ordered all PKK-affiliated offices in Iraq closed.

"We are not letting them conduct their harmful activities," he said.

Ankara threatened cross-border operations into northern Iraq if Washington and Baghdad fail to act against the PKK, which stepped up violence in Turkey this year before calling a unilateral ceasefire on October 1.

The Kurdish conflict in Turkey has claimed more than 37,000 lives since the PKK took up arms for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast in 1984.

Erdogan also called for a "special status" for the ethnically volatile, oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which the Iraqi Kurds want to incorporate into their autonomous region -- an ambition seen here as a part of Kurdish designs to break away from Baghdad.

A special status for Kirkuk "will spoil the designs of those working for the division of Iraq," he said. "Efforts to put Kirkuk under the control of one ethnic group... will create problems."

Kirkuk has sizeable Arab and Turkmen communities, the latter of Turkish descent, who angrily oppose the city's shift to the Kurdish region, which could be confirmed by referendum as early as next year.

Ankara accuses Iraqi Kurds of having moved thousands of their people to the city since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 in a bid to change its demographic structure in their favor ahead of the referendum.

Maliki gave assurances that Kirkuk is an "indispensible city of Iraq."

"We will allow no citizen, regardless of ethnic origin, to be subjected to injustice," he said. "You may be confident that the problem will be resolved through reconciliation."

Erdogan renewed offers to train Iraqi police and soldiers and Maliki called for more Turkish investment in his country.

The Iraqi prime minister is scheduled to meet Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc later in the day before leaving Ankara on Friday.