(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-22 19:24

BUSH INFORMED

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he had briefed U.S. President George W. Bush by telephone on the land offensive, which began at 7 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Thursday.

NATO member Turkey says it has the right under international law to hit PKK rebels who shelter in northern Iraq and have mounted attacks inside Turkey that have killed scores of troops. Turkey says some 3,000 PKK rebels are based in Iraq.

Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since it began an armed struggle for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984. Washington and the EU, like Turkey, classify the PKK as a terrorist organisation.

Turkish television said troops, backed by warplanes and Cobra attack helicopters, had moved 25 km (16 miles) inside Iraq. Television footage showed dozens of tanks moving at high speed near the Iraqi-Turkish border.

Turkish financial markets largely shrugged off the news. Turkish opposition politicians applauded the decision.

But a senior U.S. State Department official said the land incursion was "not the greatest news".

"A land operation is a whole new level," Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Bryza told reporters in Brussels.

He said Washington had been cooperating fully with ally Turkey in providing intelligence on PKK positions in northern Iraq since last November to enable the Turkish air force to make pinpoint attacks minimising civilian casualties.

The EU and the United States have in the past raised concerns that a major offensive could destabilise the region, though they have not criticised recent small cross-border raids.

"We understand the concerns of Turkey ... but we think this action is not the best response," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told a news conference in Slovenia.

A potential flashpoint would be if Iraq's Kurdish Peshmerga security forces were to clash with Turkish troops. Turkey has accused the Peshmerga of sheltering the PKK, analysts said.

Turkey's president called Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, to inform him of the incursion after it began.

Iraq's central government, which has little sway over mainly Kurdish northern Iraq, has repeatedly called for a diplomatic solution.

Turkey launched several major land offensives in the 1990s into northern Iraq against the separatist movement.

"Militarily, even 50,000 troops in the 1990s were not able to destroy the PKK, but psychologically this operation could be quite effective. It has taken the PKK by surprise," said Gareth Jenkins, an Istanbul-based expert on Turkish security issues.

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