Tom Casey, a State Department spokesman, also deflected a question about whether Washington granted clearance for Turkish planes to use Iraqi airspace for Sunday's raids, as claimed by Turkey's army chief General Yasar Buyukanit.

"I'm not sure what he's referring to, but you can check with the US military," Casey told reporters.

When asked if the strikes were "appropriate," Casey reiterated the general US position.

"We face a common enemy -- Turkey, the United States, and Iraq -- from the PKK (the Kurdish Workers Party)," Casey said.

"It's a terrorist organization and we certainly want to see actions taken that put it out of business," he said.

"That said, we want to make sure that the actions that are taken are done in an appropriate way, that hit only those targets that are PKK and avoid civilian casualties," he said.

Casey added that it was important that any actions "should be coordinated to the extent possible between Turkey and Iraq."

The strikes drew a furious response Monday from the Iraqi government and villagers hit by the air strikes.

"No-one has been able to share with me a lot of details about the specifics of this particular strike, but in general we view it in keeping with the other kinds of actions that have taken place across the border," he said.

He specified that the Turks have launched similar strikes and raids over the past several months.

"Certainly we would not want to see a large-scale, cross-border incursion," he added.

"At least at this point, based on the very limited information that I have, I can't make any particular distinction between this incident and previous incidents of its kind," Casey said.

When asked if the United States provided intelligence about the site targeted, he said he did not have specifics on the incident but said President George W. Bush has in the past offered to share intelligence with Ankara.

General Buyukanit, quoted by private television channel Kanal D, said Washington gave intelligence for the raids and opened up northern Iraqi airspace.

The Turkish general staff said warplanes had carried out air strikes early Sunday against PKK positions in the Kurdish-run north of Iraq. Artillery pounded the targets after the air raids, it said.