The warning came after 15 members of the Turkish security forces were killed in five days in clashes with rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who cross into Turkey from their bases in the Kurdish-held north of Iraq to engage in anti-government violence.

"The terrorist organisation has found shelter and life in the north of Iraq and it is a fact that it is troubling Turkey and spilling blood in Turkey by taking advantage of that," government spokesman Cemil Cicek told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

"Now we want the Iraqi government and our ally the United States to eliminate" the PKK threat, he said, calling on Baghdad "to take measures to remove the threat of terror against Turkey" and on Washington to support the Iraqi government in this process.

Asked whether Turkey would send troops into northern Iraq if Iraq and the United States failed to curb the rebels, Cicek said: "Turkey has rights arising from international and domestic law and it will use those rights to the full."

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on Monday promulgated a controversial new anti-terror law that was introduced to address the surge in PKK violence, the presidential office said.

The legislation makes a wide range of criminal offences -- from drug- and human-trafficking to hijacking of transport vehicles and forgery -- punishable as terrorist acts if they are committed with the aim of supporting terrorism.

The bill provides also prison terms of one to three years for those spreading propaganda in favour of terrorist groups, with the sentence increased by half if the offence is committed in the media.

Human rights and press groups have protested against the bill.

Turkey says thousands of armed PKK militants have found refuge in northern Iraq since 1999, when the group declared a unilateral ceasefire after the capture of its leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

Much to Ankara's frustration, both Baghdad and Washington have been reluctant to take military action against the PKK, arguing that their forces are swamped by violence in other parts of conflict-torn Iraq.

The issue has become of increasing importance for Ankara in recent months as clashes have escalated between the PKK and the army since the rebels called off their truce in June 2004.

The rebels have also carried out several bomb attacks in urban centres.

Following the recent Turkish losses, Iraqi ambassador Sabah Umran and US Ambassador Ross Wilson were called into the foreign ministry Monday for talks with undersecretary Ali Tuygan on curbing the PKK.

"I told them the current situation is unacceptable for us," Tuygan told reporters after the talks. "We now need immediate measures that will ease the pain we experience today. And the place those measures should be taken is northern Iraq."

"Defending ourselves is a right that we always have," he said when asked about a possible cross-border operation.

Turkey says that Article 51 of the UN Charter provides for the right of "hot pursuit" against the PKK on Iraqi territory.

The article acknowledges the right of self-defense if an armed attack occurs against a member nation.

The Turkish army conducted incursions into northern Iraq before the 2003 US-led invasion, with the support of local Iraqi Kurds.

But relations between Ankara and the Iraqi Kurds have cooled since the invasion. Washington also opposes cross-border operations on the grounds they could further complicate the troubled security situation in Iraq.

Turkey already has about 1,500 troops on Iraqi territory, stationed along the border since a major-cross border operation in 1997.

Army officials says the force stops rebels crossing into Turkish territory and does not get involved in any operational activities.

More than 37,000 people have been killed 1984 since the PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States, picked up arms for self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

In the latest incident of violence, two PKK rebels were killed in the town of Gercus, in the southeastern town of Batman, in an operation overnight on their hide-out, after the pair opened fire on an armoured police vehicle and wounded an officer, security sources said Monday.

A second policeman was also wounded in the operation and he later died of his injuries at hospital.