The Turkish government has decided to send a motion to Parliament seeking approval for a military operation against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq, a government spokesman said yesterday.

Cemil Cicek said he hoped Parliament would vote on the motion this week but indicated that the government would still prefer a solution to the conflict that does not involve a cross-border offensive. Local news stations said the vote would be held tomorrow.

"Our hope is that there will be no need to use this motion," Cicek said.

The spokesman said any military operation would target the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party. The statement appeared to be aimed at reassuring Iraq's central government as well as Iraqi Kurds, who run their own administration in northern Iraq.

Fighting along the border with Iraq was reported over the weekend, where Turkey's military said it "responded heavily" to attacks from northern Iraq by Kurdish fighters on Friday. Iraqi Kurds reported that Turkish artillery hit their territory.

Senior rebel commander Duran Kalkan said the Turkish military would suffer a serious blow if it launches a cross-border offensive, saying it would "be bogged down in a quagmire," the pro-Kurdish Firat news agency reported yesterday.

Cicek said the motion, if approved by the Parliament, will expire in one year. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government twice acquired similar authorizations for cross-border operations from the Parliament in 2003, but did not act on them.

US officials have urged Turkey not to send troops and appealed for a diplomatic solution with Iraq. The Kurdish self-rule region in northern Iraq is one of the country's few relatively stable areas and the Kurds are also longtime US allies.

Cabinet ministers had also been expected to debate retaliatory measures if the US Congress passes a resolution that labels the World War I-era killings of Armenians as genocide.

Agencies

(China Daily 10/16/2007 page12)