Turkey says Iraq incursion not immediate

Turkey's premier indicated Tuesday that an offensive against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq would not immediately follow the expected go-ahead from Parliament, as oil prices soared amid international calls for restraint.

The Iraqi government urged Turkey not to send troops across the border to pursue separatist Kurds in mountain hideouts, calling for "a diplomatic solution" to tensions that have raised fears of a new front in the Iraq war.

Tareq al-Hashemi, one of Iraq's two vice presidents, flew to Ankara and met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other Turkish officials before a Parliament vote Wednesday that is widely expected to authorize cross-border attacks during the next year.

"The passage of the motion in Parliament does not mean that an operation will be carried out at once," Erdogan said. "Turkey would act with common sense and determination when necessary and when the time is ripe."

Public anger over attacks by Kurdish guerrillas is running high, but government leaders know that two dozen military campaigns into Iraq since the 1980s failed to eradicate the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. And a cross-border attack could strain ties with the U.S., a NATO ally that opposes any disruption of its efforts to stabilize Iraq.

Light, sweet crude for November delivery rose $1.94 a barrel to $87.07 Tuesday on the New York Mercantile Exchange after hitting a record $88.20. Traders attributed the surge partly to concerns that Turkish military action might disrupt Mideast crude oil supplies.

"Whenever there is any escalation in political tensions in the Middle East, oil markets become concerned," said David Moore, a commodity strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney. "There is production and there are pipelines that people worry may be affected if there are any issues in Iraq."

The potential harm to Turkey's economy, which has recovered strongly from an economic crisis in 2001, is probably another factor in the government's deliberations on whether to send troops into Iraq.

Gazi Ercel, a former central bank governor, said an offensive could trigger falls in the Turkish stock market and currency and cause uneasiness among foreign investors about whether Turkey is a "risky place" to do business.

The head of the United Nation's refugee agency warned that a Turkish incursion into Iraq could exacerbate what is already the Middle's East's worst refugee crisis since the 1940s.

"I can only express our very deep concern about any development that might lead to meaningful displacements of populations in that sensitive area," said Antonio Guterres, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees.

Guterres said violence in Iraq has forced 4 million Iraqis to flee their homes and an offensive into the Kurdish-controlled north would upset one of Iraq's few relatively stable areas.

There has been speculation Turkey's government sought approval for an offensive as a way to pressure U.S. and Iraqi authorities to move against Turkish Kurd rebels operating from northern Iraq.

On Tuesday, Erdogan repeated his calls for a crackdown, saying the Kurdish regional administration in northern Iraq should "build a thick wall between itself and terrorist organizations."

Ali al-Dabbagh, spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said Iraq's government would not tolerate violence from the separatist rebels, but he urged Turkey to "seek a diplomatic solution and not a military one in dealing with the terrorist threats that target it." Al-Maliki's office said a high-level political and security team would go to Turkey for talks later this week.

A Turkish soldier was killed Tuesday when he stepped on a land mine believed to have been planted by Kurdish rebels near the southeastern Turkish city of Bingol, local authorities said.

PKK rebels have been fighting for autonomy in Turkey's Kurdish-dominated southeast since 1984 in a conflict that has killed thousands of people.

Turkey has complained about what it considers a lack of U.S. support against the PKK, which has been labeled a terrorist group by Washington.

Turkish frustration with America has intensified because of another dispute: a congressional move toward declaring as a genocide the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Turks during World War I. Turkey denies there was a systematic campaign to eliminate Armenians, saying the deaths came during the civil unrest that accompanied the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.

President Bush is strongly urging Congress not to pass the resolution amid worries Turkey might retaliate by cutting off key supply routes used by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Egemen Bagis, a foreign policy adviser to Erdogan, said Tuesday that Turkey should not punish the Bush administration if the resolution passes. He said it should react against those in Congress backing the measure as well as impose sanctions against Armenia for supporting it.

___

Associated Press writers Selcan Hacaoglu and Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed to this report.