Turkey, Iraq agree to try to end presence of Kurdish rebels in Iraq

ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey and Iraq agreed to try to root out a Kurdish rebel group from northern Iraq, but Iraq's prime minister said he could not sign an agreement implementing the promise until it was put to his parliament.

"We have reached an agreement to spend all efforts to end the presence of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK in Iraq," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a news conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Nouri al-Maliki.

Erdogan said the leaders signed a memorandum of understanding and agreed to speed up work to finalize a counterterrorism agreement to combat the Kurdish guerrillas who have escalated their attacks on Turkey from bases in northern Iraq.

"Within a short period of time, a large delegation under the leadership of the (Iraqi) interior minister will visit. Security officials will come together and seal an agreement," Erdogan said.

Turkey has threatened to stage an incursion into northern Iraq unless Iraq or the United States cracked down on the separatist rebel group. The envisaged counterterrorism agreement is aimed at forcing Iraq to officially commit itself to fighting the rebels.

Iraq's cooperation could possibly avert a Turkish incursion, which is opposed by Washington. The United States says the PKK is a terrorist group, but U.S. forces are consumed by chaos elsewhere in Iraq and want to preserve the Kurdish-dominated north as a rare spot of relative stability.

Al-Maliki's already shaky government has been hit with a series of Cabinet desertions by both Shiite and Sunni Arabs, although the Kurdish portion of his coalition has held fast so far. But some members are questioning their participation, and the prime minister's recalcitrance on signing a counterterrorism agreement could be laid to his fear of angering the Kurds.

"We have signed a memorandum of understanding that includes our ideas. This preliminary agreement (the memorandum) will be moved to field and technical committees to be turn our wish to combat terrorism into practical measures and mechanisms between the two sides," al-Maliki said.

While reaching agreement on Kurdish rebels, al-Maliki refused to sign the counterterrorism agreement requested by the Turkish authorities, saying it was not in his power to commit Baghdad to the agreement without first putting it before parliament and his Cabinet, an Iraqi government official said.