by Sibel Utku Bila
ANKARA, Aug 16 (AFP) - Turkey on Monday called on Iraq to clamp down on armed Turkish Kurd rebels who have sought refuge across the border, as visiting Iraqi President Ghazi al-Yawar warned Ankara against interfering in its internal affairs.
Turkey says thousands of rebels from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), recently renamed KONGRA-GEL, have holed up in mountainous northern Iraq since 1999 when the group began observing a unilateral truce in its bloody campaign for self-rule in southeastern Turkey.
The rebels are now believed to be infiltrating back into Turkey after the group cancelled the truce in June, warning foreigners and investors to stay away.
"I told president Yawar that we expected (Iraqi officials) to end the presence of PKK/KONGRA-GEL in Iraq at once and to ensure that the new Iraq does not give shelter to terrorist organizations," Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer told a press conference after talks with the Iraqi leader.
Yawar for his part expressed Baghdad's readiness to combat the rebels.
"We cannot... turn a blind eye to a formation which endangers the security of our neighbours," he said.
But he added that Baghdad would like to develop its ties with Turkey in the framewok of "good neighbourly relations without any intervention in internal affairs".
Sezer also urged Baghdad to prevent Iraqi Kurds from taking sole control of the ethnically volatile northern city of Kirkuk, saying unrest in the oil-rich region would harm stability.
"...an attempt by an ethnic group living in Kirkuk -- Turkmens, Arabs, Kurds, Assyrians and other Iraqis -- to claim the city would jeopardize the stability and order in Kirkuk and Iraq," the Turkish leader said.
Iraqi Kurds argue that Kirkuk used to be overwhelmingly Kurdish in the 1950s before Baghdad began deliberately settling thousands of Arabs in the city as part of its policy of Arabization.
The city, which also has a large population of Turkmen, a minority of Turkish origin backed by Ankara, is a hotbed of ethnic tension and plagued by frequent violence as Kurds force out Arabs.
Ankara fears that Kurdish control of the area's oil resources could further strengthen the Iraqi Kurds whom it suspects of plotting to break away from Baghdad.
Turkey is worried that such a prospect could fan separatism among its own restive Kurdish population in its southeastern corner, adjacent to northern Iraq.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul also drew attention to the explosive situation in Kirkuk in meetings with Yawar later in the day, sources close to the talks said.
"Mr. Erdogan expressed our concerns in the strongest terms... The Iraqi president responded that he shared them," an official said on condition of anonymity.
Yawar also encouraged Turkish investment in Iraq, he said.
Turkish companies are keen on trading with Iraq, but a recent series of abductions of Turkish drivers and the killing of a Turkish worker by hostage-takers have raised alarm among the business community.
Increased security measures for Turks working in Iraq was also high on the agenda of Yawar's talks in Ankara.
Sezer told the Iraqi president it was vital to implement effective measures as soon as possible to "prevent such attacks from harming our economic and commercial ties."
Turkish officials had earlier said they were working on beefing up security for its nationals in Iraq, one of Ankara's principal trade partners before the 1991 Gulf War.
Among the envisaged measures is a plan for Turkish drivers to ferry goods to areas between the northern towns of Zakhu and Mosul, considered relatively safe, where they would hand over the goods to Iraqi authorities for transfer to their ultimate destinations.
Yawar is to leave Turkey Tuesday after a meeting with businessmen.