"The Turkish armed forces have said they will keep up the struggle against terrorism until not even a single armed terrorist is left. There is no change in our position," chief of staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, said in a speech at a military academy here.

"The only solution for members of the terrorist organization is to lay down their arms and surrender to the Turkish justice," he said.

Buyukanit was speaking after the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, called Saturday a ceasefire following an upsurge in deadly violence.

The announcement followed an appeal by jailed PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan for a ceasefire to lay the ground for "a diplomatic dialogue" in the 22-year Kurdish conflict, which Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan swiftly rejected.

The army, which has been battling the PKK in mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey since 1984, has ignored other ceasefire announcements in the past.

"The security forces are not pulling out of operations anywhere in the world, they will accomplish their missions. They are operational and cannot stop being so," Erdogan told reporters accompanying him on a flight to the United States Saturday.

He added, however, he and Buyukanit discussed the latest ceasefire announcement, adding: "If the terrorist organization stands by its words, then no operation will be undertaken without reason."

Curbing the PKK was expected to top the agenda of the meeting Erdogan was to have later Monday with US President George W. Bush at the White House.

Thousands of PKK rebels have found save haven in the mountains of neighboring northern Iraq, which Ankara charges, has become a training ground for the group, where it enjoys unrestricted movement and easily obtains weapons and explosives for attacks across the border.

The PKK has fought for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984, with the conflict claiming more than 37,000 lives.