WRAPUP 2-Turkish PM hopes Iraq incursion won't be needed

ANKARA, Oct 16 (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that securing permission from parliament to launch a major attack on Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq did not necessarily mean a military incursion was imminent.

Instead, Erdogan said "we will act at the right time and under the right conditions".

"This is about self-defence," he told his ruling AK Party.

The prospect of a strike into mainly Kurdish northern Iraq helped push oil prices towards a record high $88 a barrel. The Turkish lira <IYIX=> traded down almost 2 percent against the dollar.

Baghdad sent Sunni Arab Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi to Ankara and called for urgent talks to head off military action that Washington fears could sow chaos in an area so far spared much of the carnage afflicting other parts of Iraq.

Erdogan's cabinet asked parliament this week for permission to launch cross-border offensives following a spate of Kurdish separatist attacks. Approval is expected on Wednesday.

Washington has urged restraint on Turkey, strategically located between Europe and the Middle East. It relies on Turkey for logistical support for operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Turkey, for its part, argues that the United States and Iraq have done too little to curb some 3,000 Kurdish rebels attacking eastern Turkey in pursuit of an independent state there.

PRESSURE TO ACT

Dozens of soldiers and civilians have been killed in recent weeks by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels, piling pressure on the government to act.

The Turkish military has long called for permission to hunt down PKK rebels in Iraq.

Under heavy security, General Ilker Basbug, head of the land forces, inspected units stationed in the Turkish border province of Sirnak, which has been hardest hit by recent PKK attacks.

A paramilitary officer became the latest casualty when he stepped on a rebel-laid mine, security sources said.

Turkey blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since it launched its armed struggle in southeast Turkey.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called for a "crisis cell" in the government established to monitor developments along the Turkish border to meet on Tuesday.

"We are ready to have urgent talks with senior officials in the Turkish government to discuss all the pending issues and to give guarantees which would regulate relations between the two neighbouring countries," Maliki's office said in a statement.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres warned of the danger of a refugee crisis in northern Iraq in the event of a Turkish operation.

Some analysts and diplomats say an operation is more likely after a vote last week in which a U.S. congressional committee branded killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One as genocide -- a charge Turkey denies.

"There is no formal linkage (between the Armenian bill and an Iraq operation) except psychological," Brent Scowcroft, a former U.S. national security council adviser, told Reuters.

"I hope we can work with the Turks to prevent this cross-border operation. We have taken some steps but they have been inadequate."

Turkey recalled its ambassador from the United States for consultations after the Congressional vote. (Additional reporting by Hidir Goktas in Ankara, Daren Butler in Sirnak, Ingrid Melander in Brussels and Baghdad bureau)