ANKARA, Jan 9 (AFP)  The heads of the two Kurdish factions in control of the north of
 Iraq have met for the first time in three years for peace talks, a spokesman for one of the groups
 said on Tuesday.

 The meeting late Monday saw Massoud Barzani, head of the Democratic party of Kurdistan
 (PDK) and Jalal Talabani, head of the rival Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) face to face in
 Selahaddine, at PDK headquarters.

 The PDK spokesman described the talks as constructive.

 Later on Monday, Talabani left for meetings with Ankara.

 "We want to bolster our co-operation with Turkey," Talabani said before leaving for a meeting
 with Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and under-secretary for foreign affairs Faruk Logoglu in the
 Turkish capital.

 "We, together with Ankara, want stability in the north of Iraq," Anatolia agency reported Talabani
 as saying.

 He added that he was seeking Turkey's support in relaunching the Ankara process -- peace
 talks sponsored by the United States, Britain and Turkey.

 The peace process stalled in September 1998 after Barzani and Talabani signed a peace
 agreement in Washington to iron out their differences of opinion.

 Turkey denounced the agreement which it complained was reached without its participation.

 The region has been in conflict since the Iraqi part of Kurdistan slipped from the control of the
 Baghdad regime at the end of the Gulf war in 1991.

 While the PUK now controls the eastern part of the area bordering Iran, the PDK's stronghold is
 in the part of the region that borders on Turkey.

 The PDK has supported the Ankara regime since 1997 in its campaign against the Turkistan
 Workers Party (PKK) and the Turkish military frequently mounts operations against PKK units
 in the north of Iraq.

 The PKK ended its armed conflict against Turkey in 1999 and retreated to northern Iraq. But
 Turkey has played down the peace bid as a ploy, urging the rebels either to surrender or face
 the army.

 Turkish authorities had long accused the PUK of supporting the Workers Party, but the PUK
 cited recent clashes between PKK resistance fighters and its own guerrillas to deny this.

 The skirmishes come after a long period of close ties between the PUK and the PKK, which has
 waged a 15-year armed campaign against Turkey for Kurdish self-rule in the country's
 southeast.

 The PUK has accused the PKK rebels of attacking its positions in a bid to destabilise the
 Kurdish-held enclave.

 On Sunday, Ecevit confirmed that Turkish troops had led an incursion into northern Iraq to
 provide technical help for the PUK and PDK in its efforts to fight PKK rebel fighters.

 The Turkish Prime Minister did not say how many Turkish soldiers were involved, but local press
 reports said that some 10,000 troops had penetrated deep into the mountains of northern Iraq.

 Turkey's incursions have attracted storms of criticism from Baghdad, which accuses Ankara of
 violating its territorial integrity.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com