US President George W. Bush met with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the White House on Monday, vowing to step up efforts to fight against Kurdish rebels hiding in North Iraq.
Describing Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) as "an enemy of Turkey, a free Iraq and the United States," Bush said "I made it very clear to the prime minister that we want to work in a close way to deal with this problem."
Speaking to reporters after talks with Erdogan, Bush said top US military figures would be in more regular contact with their Turkish counterparts in an effort to track the movement of the PKK rebels.
Bush announced a new three-way military partnership grouping the United States, Turkey and Iraq to improve the sharing of intelligence on the PKK militants.
"Faulty intelligence means that we can't solve the problem. Good, sound intelligence, delivered on a real-time basis, using modern technology, will make it much easier to deal effectively" with the PKK, said Bush.
The Bush administration have been trying to stop a possible Turkish incursion into Iraq to hunt for anti-government PKK militants, which, the White House believes, could bring instability to what has been the calmest part of Iraq and could set a precedent for other countries, such as Iran, that have conflicts with Kurdish rebels.
Stressing the need for a diplomatic solution between Turkey and Iraq, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Turkey last week, having promised to redouble efforts against the PKK.
However, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan made clear Turkey's government was not satisfied.
Bush dismissed at the new briefing questions about the possibility of Turkey attacking Iraq as hypothetical.
"It's fine to speculate about what may or may not happen," Bush said. "But nothing can happen until you get good intelligence. We need to know where people are hiding, and we need to know what they're doing."
In his remarks, Erdogan, who insists that the Turkish government has the authority to mount an incursion into Iraq if necessary, did not give further indication of his intentions.
Instead, he followed Bush's example, emphasizing its cooperation with the United States.
"As strategic partners, we are fighting jointly against international terrorism in the world," Erdogan said.
(Xinhua News Agency November 6, 2007)
