ANKARA (Reuters) - Iraqi Kurdish faction leader Jalal Talabani said Tuesday he had asked
Turkey for economic aid but denied having sought military support to drive out Turkish
Kurd guerrillas from northern Iraq.

However, Talabani warned that his Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) would use whatever
means necessary to expel Turkish Kurd militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
from the area it controls.

Northern Iraq has been controlled by two feuding Iraqi Kurdish groups -- Talabani's PUK
and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) led by Massoud Barzani -- since the 1991 Gulf
War.

The United States brokered a 1998 cease-fire between the two, seeking to unite the rivals
into a bulwark against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The deal obliges both to prevent
PKK activity in northern Iraq.

Turkish media said on the weekend that Turkey had sent 10,000 troops into the breakaway
enclave in a major operation against Turkish Kurd rebel bases, a report denied by the army.

"We are asking for political and economic support from Turkey," Talabani told reporters
after meeting foreign ministry officials in Ankara. "We didn't ask for any military support."

A report in a newspaper that backs the PKK said Turkish troops were mobilized after
Talabani asked for Turkey's help to clear out the PKK presence from the area it controls.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said over the weekend Turkey was providing technical support
to Iraqi Kurds for its own security. Talabani told a Turkish television news channel that
Turkish aid was limited to food and medical help to villagers there.

IRAQI KURDISH FACTIONS PURSUE COOPERATION

Talabani told television channel CNN-Turk he met with rival Barzani before coming to
Turkey and the two agreed to improve dialogue and conditions under the Washington deal.

"It is as if there is a cease-fire between us," Talabani told CNN Turk in a description of ties
with Baghdad.

Turkey allows U.S. and British military aircraft to use an air base to patrol northern Iraq's
no-fly zone. In return, Turkish forces regularly cross the border to pursue PKK guerrillas
with little Western opposition.

The PKK has largely withdrawn from Turkey to northern Iraq and Iran since late 1999
following orders from its imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan that the group should abandon
the armed struggle and remold itself as a political party.

Earlier Tuesday, Talabani told NTV television station that as many as 8,000 PKK guerrillas
were now in northern Iraq.

Ankara dismisses the PKK cease-fire as a ploy to save Ocalan from a death sentence for
treason. The military has pledged to "neutralize" all PKK members who do not surrender.

"We discussed the PKK aggression against Iraqi Kurdistan when they sent all their military
men (over the border)," Talabani said after Tuesday's talks.

"They claimed they stopped the armed struggle there but they started fighting in Iraqi
Kurdistan," he said. "We will oblige them by all means to leave our area."

He said there was currently no fighting on the ground.

Talabani was due to meet Ecevit Wednesday and was expected to hold talks with Western
diplomats in Ankara.
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The Kurdistan Observer
www.kurdistanobserver.com