ANKARA, Dec 21 (AFP) - The United States and Turkey agreed to cooperate in probing the deadly ambush of five Turkish policemen in northern Iraq after a telephone conversation Tuesday between US President George W. Bush and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Anatolia news agency reported.
"It is absolutely necessary to shed light on this incident. I have given orders for a full investigation. We trust in your coooperation on this issue," Erdogan was quoted as saying.
Bush said Washington was ready to cooperate, the agency reported.
Five Turkish officers and two Iraqi drivers died Friday when a four-car convoy carrying a group of policemen assigned to guard the Turkish embassy in Iraq was ambushed near the northern city of Mosul on its way to Baghdad.
Two officers who survived the attack reached the Iraqi capital, while a third returned to the Habur border post between the two countries.
During the conversation, Erdogan voiced concern about the increase since last month in clashes between US forces and Iraqi insurgents in Mosul and stressed the need to protect the war-torn country's territorial integrity.
Bush also stressed the need to uphold Iraq's unity, according to Anatolia.
Turkey suspects Kurdish groups in northern Iraq of planning to break away from the central control of Baghdad, a move it fears may fan separatist sentiment among its own restive Kurdish population.
Ankara is also uncomfortable over the large numbers of Turkish Kurd rebels who, it says, receive military training in camps in northern Iraq before sneaking back to Turkey to attack government targets.
Turkey has repeatedly called for US action against the rebels, members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The PKK, now also known as KONGRA-GEL, waged a 15-year armed campaign for self-rule in mainly Kurdish southeast Turkey before calling a five-year truce, which it ended in June.
In Tuesday's conversation, Erdogan suggested holding a trilateral security meeting in Turkey between Turkish, US and Iraqi officials -- a proposal Bush said he would evaluate once the security situation in Iraq improves, Anatolia reported.
12/21/2004 15:21 GMT - AFP