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Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Maliki held talks on Tuesday with Turkish envoys following a string of air strikes launched by Ankara's forces in Kurdistan region in northern Iraq after a deadly Turkey's Kurdish PKK rebel attack.
Maliki and Massoud Barzani, president of Iraq's Kurdistan region, met in the Iraqi federal capital with Turkey's Deputy Foreign Minister Murat Ozcelik, Maliki's office said.
The conflict between Turkey and the Turkey's rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) conflict topped the agenda.
"Iraq feels anger and resentment to the PKK for its terrorist activities against neighbouring Turkey from Iraqi territory," the statement quoted Maliki as saying.
Turkish warplanes have been bombing Kurdish rebel hideouts across the border in Iraqi Kurdistan "northern Iraq" since an October 3 attack by PKK militants against a Turkish border outpost that killed 17 Turkish soldiers.
Barzani's office chief Fouad Hussein described the two hour talks as "positive and constructive" and told AFP that both sides had agreed to hold further discussions.
Ozcelik said the neighbouring countries had to take "decisive action to address the threat posed by the PKK terrorist organisation."
The Baghdad meeting came after President Abdullah Gul said the Turkish government would talk with Iraqi Kurds to resolve the problem,www.ekurd.net in line with a longstanding call from northern Iraq's regional Kurdish government.
Attaakhi newspaper, which is owned by Barzani's ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), on Tuesday welcomed what it called a policy shift by Turkey.
"This is an important change in Turkey's policy because the government has always refused to hold direct dialogue with our government regarding cooperation and border issues to contain the PKK."
Gul said on Saturday that Ankara would hold talks with the Iraqi Kurds and warned that "an authority vacuum" in the rugged mountains along the Turkish border was helping the PKK to use the area as a safe haven.
"There is nothing more normal than having dialogue with the northern Iraqis... in the struggle against terrorism," he said.
Turkish diplomats began meeting with Iraqi Kurdish officials in May after a long period of chilly ties, but after the PKK attack on the outpost, the Turkish army charged again that the Iraqi Kurds were aiding the rebels.
The military commander of the PKK said that his organisation had the right to defend itself and accused Ankara of seeking conflict with Iraqi Kurds through its charges that they are sheltering rebel fighters in their autonomous Kurdistan region.
"Turkey wants to drag the Kurdistan region into war by accusing Iraqi Kurds of harbouring us," Murat Karayilan told AFP ahead of the meeting in his remote mountain hideout in Kurdistan region "northern Iraq".
Ankara has routinely accused Iraqi Kurds,www.ekurd.net who run the autonomous region, of tolerating, or even aiding the rebels, and long refused to hold discussions with Barzani's government. Iraqi and Kurdish authorities in Kurdistan region strongly reject the claim.
Iraqi authorities have repeatedly pledged efforts to curb the PKK, but say the group's hideouts are located in inhospitable, remote mountains.
On Wednesday, the Turkish parliament extended by one year the government's mandate to order cross-border military operations against the PKK in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Iraqi Kurdish politician says, Turkey is using Turkey's Kurdish separatist PKK rebel group as an excuse to invade Kurdistan region 'Iraq' to prevent the establishment of Kurdistan state in the Kurdish autonomous region in 'northern Iraq', Turkey fears this could fan separatism among its own large Kurdish population in southeast Turkey.
Over 39,000 Turkish soldiers and Kurdish PKK guerrillas have been killed since 1984 when the Turkey's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) took up arms for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey (Turkey-Kurdistan). A large Turkey's Kurdish community openly sympathise with the Kurdish PKK rebels.
The PKK demanded Turkey's recognition of the Kurds' identity in its constitution and of their language as a native language along with Turkish in the country's Kurdish areas, the party also demanded an end to ethnic discrimination in Turkish laws and constitution against Kurds, ranting them full political freedoms.
The PKK is considered a 'terrorist' organization by Ankara, U.S., the PKK continues to be on the blacklist list in EU despite court ruling which overturned a decision to place the Kurdish rebel group PKK and its political wing on the European Union's terror list.
Turkey refuses to recognize its Kurdish population as a distinct minority. It has allowed some cultural rights such as limited broadcasts in the Kurdish language and private Kurdish language courses with the prodding of the European Union, but Kurdish politicians say the measures fall short of their expectations.