The emphasis on diplomacy came at a time when ties between Ankara and Iraqi Kurds have deteriorated following Turkish threats of a cross-border military operation to crack down on rebel bases.

"It will be useful to intensify political and diplomatic efforts to overcome the terrorist threat stemming from northern Iraq and... the tensions that the dispute over Kirkuk's status has created in Iraq," the National Security Council said in a statement after a routine meeting.

The council, an advisory body, is chaired by the president and brings together the country's civilian and military leadership.

Ankara has grown increasingly impatient with US and Iraqi reluctance to move against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), an armed separatist group listed as a terrorist organisation by both Ankara and Washington, whose members have taken refuge in northern Iraq.

Army chief General Yasar Buyukanit last week accused Iraqi Kurds, who control the region, of supporting the PKK and providing it with explosives for bomb attacks in Turkey. He also raised objections to any move by Ankara to seek dialogue with them.

His comments drew a veiled rebuke by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, who insisted that the government would not shy away from talks with any Iraqi group to ensure that problems are resolved through political means.

Buyukanit also charged that Iraqis provided no security on their side of the mountainous frontier, giving the PKK a free hand in its operations.

Washington has warned Ankara against an incursion into northern Iraq, wary that such it may destabilise a relataively peaceful region in the conflict-torn country.

Ankara and the Iraqi Kurds are also at loggerheads over the future of the ethnically volatile, oil-rich city of Kirkuk, which the Kurds want to incorporate into their autonomous region although the city is also home to Arabs and Turkish-backed Turkmens.

Ankara is worried that Kurdish control of Kirkuk's oil reserves will boost what it sees as Kurdish aspirations to break away from Baghdad.

An independent Kurdish state, it fears, could fuel the 22-year PKK insurgency in adjoining southeast Turkey, which has already claimed more than 37,000 lives.