"We want units composed entirely of professionals to man our borders and work in risky areas," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a televised speech to members of his Justice and Development Party.

"They will not be a special army, but border units," he added.

Since 1984, the Turkish army has been battling rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) waging an armed campaign for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast.

The rebels have rear bases in neighbouring northern Iraq and regularly cross the 350 kilometre-long (270 mile-long) border between the two countries for attacks on Turkish targets.

Since 2007, Turkish fighter jets have bombed PKK targets in northern Iraq numerous times and soldiers have carried out a number of cross-border operations to hunt the rebels.

Members of these planned border units will be recruited for a period of at least five years, Erdogan said, without elaborating on how big the force would be or when it would be introduced.

The prime mininster also did not give details on the composition of the new units.

Despite some tentative steps towards building a professional army, the Turkish Armed Forces -- the second largest standing army in NATO with approximately 515,000 men -- is largely composed of conscripts.

Erdogan's announcement coincides with a significant rise in PKK attacks after jailed rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan said in May that he was abandoning efforts for peace with Turkey and the rebels called off a unilateral truce last month.

Some 45,000 people have been killed in the conflict between Turkey and the KK, which is blacklisted as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community.