Iraqi vice president pledges cooperation with Turkey against Kurdish separatists

ANKARA, Turkey: Iraq's vice president on Wednesday assured Ankara of his country's support for Turkey in its conflict with Kurdish separatist rebels.

Turkey is pressing neighboring Iraq and its ally, the United States, to crack down on rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, who launch attacks on Turkey from bases in northern Iraq.

The group has been waging a bloody war in southeast Turkey since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed 37,000 lives.

Turkey has not ruled out military incursions into Iraq to hunt separatist Kurds, despite warnings from Washington, which fears that such a move could lead to tensions with local Iraqi Kurdish groups, an important ally of the U.S. in Iraq.

"We cannot struggle against foreign organizations," a translator initially quoted Adil Abdul-Mahdi — one of Iraq's two vice presidents_ as saying during a joint news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.

But Abdul-Mahdi's statement, in Arabic, appeared to come as a surprise to Gul who questioned whether there may have been a translation error.

The Iraqi vice president then corrected his statement saying: "It is out of the question for us not to struggle against foreign organizations."

Abdul-Mahdi said Iraqi forces would do their best to prevent attacks on Turkey from Iraqi soil.

Iraqi Kurds, accused by Turkey's military of supporting separatist Kurdish guerrillas, have been urging Turkey to consider political solutions to deal with the guerrillas, saying any incursion would amount to interfering with Iraq's internal affairs.

The United States has been trying to address Turkish concerns in countering the PKK through mediation led by retired Gen. Joseph Ralston, a former NATO supreme allied commander.

But Turkish officials have accused Washington of not doing enough to help counter separatist Kurdish rebels operating inside neighboring Iraq.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said no action has been taken to expel the PKK from bases in northern Iraq or to cut off financial support to the rebel group. The group is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.