A large-scale Turkish incursion into northern Iraq was now unlikely, said analysts. But they saw tacit US approval for surgical strikes on rebel targets across the border in Bush's promise to provide Ankara with "real-time" intelligence on Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) movements.

Bush also announced better communication channels between the top echelons of the Turkish and US military and the top US commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.

Washington opposes unilateral Turkish action against the PKK in northern Iraq. It fears a possible confrontation between two allies -- NATO-member Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds who rule the region -- that could destabilise a relatively peaceful part of Iraq.

"We understood each other well and agreed on the basic issues," Erdogan said Monday after his meeting with Bush, widely seen as the culmination of frantic US efforts to avert the threat of a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq.

He welcomed Bush's promises, but said Ankara had no plans to withdraw some 100,000 troops massed along the Iraqi border.

"Turkey will defend itself against terrorism in the absence of international cooperation," he insisted.

Erdogan also appeared to take a softer line towards the Iraqi Kurdish leadership. Ankara has accused of harbouring and aiding the separatist PKK, which uses northern Iraq as a springboard for cross-border attacks.

Iraq pledged at the weekend that the Baghdad government and the regional Kurdish administration in the north would both enhance measures to curb the PKK.

"We have to trust them at the moment. We will see (their commitment) in time as we take (further) steps" against the rebels, Erdogan said.

The Turkish government has come under immense public pressure to crack down on PKK bases in northern Iraq after the separatists significantly stepped up their attacks.

Tensions on the Iraqi border increased after October 21 when PKK rebels Turkey says came from northern Iraq ambushed a military unit, killing 12 soldiers and capturing eight others. The captives were released Sunday.

The White House talks diminished the prospect of an imminent Turkish incursion into northern Iraq, veteran journalist Hasan Cemal commented.

"The two sides will be working together and action (against the PKK) will be spread over time," he said.

"There could be surgical strikes" on rebel targets across the border, he added.

Bush's assurances will help heal Turkish frustration with the little help the United States has provided so far against the PKK, said another analyst, Cengiz Candar.

"A sturdy rope now binds Turkey and the United States," Candar said. "At the same time, the United States has strongly committed itself to the struggle against the PKK."

Other analysts disagreed that Turkey would coordinate all its action with the United States.

"Ankara seems poised for some serious steps -- some of them with Washington's support and approval, but also some without Washington's knowledge and even in defiance of it," Rusen Cakir, an expert on the Kurdish question, wrote in the daily Vatan.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by much of the international community, has waged a bloody 23-year campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey in a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.