ANKARA - Turkey has run out of patience over the safe haven Kurdish rebels enjoy in neighbouring northern Iraq, but there are no immediate plans for a cross-border military operation into the region, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Friday.
"Our patience has run out... but timing is important. What matters is to obtain results," Gul said in an interview with the NTV news channel.
The Turkish army says a military incursion into northern Iraq is needed to clamp down on bases of the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and stop the infiltration of rebels armed with weapons and explosives for attacks on Turkish targets.
"There is no disagreement between the government and the army. Parliament and the government will certainly support any action, any operation that will yield results," Gul said.
He added, however, that there was no preparation at the moment for the government to seek parliamentary authorisation to send soldiers into northern Iraq.
Public pressure on the government to step up the fight against the PKK mounted after a suicide bomber authorities believe was a PKK member blew himself up at a busy shopping centre in downtown Ankara Tuesday, killing six people and wounding 121.
Ankara is increasingly frustrated by US and Iraqi reluctance to act to curb the PKK in northern Iraq, an autonomous region run by the Iraqi Kurds.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, has fought for Kurdish self-rule in southeastern Turkey since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.
Ankara says the Iraqi Kurds who run an autonomous administration in northern Iraq tolerate -- and even assist -- thousands of PKK rebels who have found refuge in their region.
The militants, it says, obtain weapons and explosives there for attacks on Turkish targets across the border.
Gul told NTV that Ankara did not expect much from the central government in Baghdad because it was already overwhelmed by the insurgency in Iraq.
He said, however, the United States and the Iraqi Kurds, who control northern Iraq, should act against the PKK.
"Either you prevent illegal activities on your soil or if you are not powerful enough, the occupation forces there... should prevent them. If they cannot do it either, then we, who are the ones to suffer, will do it," Gul said.
"We have the right to expect cooperation on the highest level from the United States," he said. "Our cooperation is not on the desired level at the moment."
Washington has warned Ankara against a cross-border operation in northern Iraq, wary that such a move may destabilise a relataively peaceful region in the conflict-torn country and fuel tensions between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds, a staunch US ally.
05/25/2007 16:20 GMT