Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is expected to pay his long awaited visit to Iraq on Thursday, Hurriyet.com reported on Tuesday.
The Turkish prime minister has long been reported to pay a visit to Iraqi capital of Baghdad to meet Iraqi top officials, including President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
Erdogan is expected to discuss several key issues with Iraqi officials, including the continuing raids by Turkey against the outlawed separatist PKK, who hides out along its mountainous border with northern Iraq, and economic agreements between the two countries.
Turkey, provided with intelligence on PKK movements in Iraq by the U.S., has stepped up military action against the PKK since December, carrying out several air strikes and a week-long ground incursion into northern Iraq in February, where more than 2,000 PKK separatists take refuge.
Ankara has also begun to establish a dialogue mechanism with the Kurdish administration of northern Iraq, an important shift in Turkey's foreign policy as part of its intensified fight against the separatist PKK on both diplomatic and military fronts.