Turkey "preserves its determination to take political, diplomatic and military steps as part of the authorisation it was given by parliament in the struggle against PKK bases," a government statement said.

Analysts played down the prospect of a large-scale Turkish incursion, but said President George W. Bush's pledges of support pointed at tacit US approval for limited strikes on rebel targets across the border.

Bush, who met Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Monday, called the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) a common enemy and promised to provide Ankara with "real-time" intelligence on rebel movements.

He also announced new communications channels between the top echelons of the Turkish and US military and the top US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus.

Ankara said the two leaders agreed "on taking urgent steps" to combat the PKK, including intelligence-sharing.

Washington opposes unilateral Turkish action against the PKK in northern Iraq, fearing an eventual confrontation between two key 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.

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

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

Erdogan appeared to take a softer line towards the Iraqi Kurdish leadership that Ankara accuses of harbouring and aiding the 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 rebels.

"We have to trust them for 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 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.

According to Hasan Cemal, a veteran journalist who has published books on the Kurdish issue, the White House talks diminished the prospect of an imminent Turkish incursion.

"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.

"The United States has strongly committed itself to the struggle against the PKK," he said.

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.