Iraqi PM to Turks: Refrain from 'military solutions' to attacks

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's prime minister will hold emergency talks with his ministers Tuesday on the crisis with Turkey after the Turkish government asked for authority to launch cross-border raids against Kurdish separatists.

In a statement issued by his office, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki called on Ankara to avoid "military solutions" to the situation sparked by recent attacks in Turkey by the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK.

"We are ready to hold urgent dialogue sessions with senior officials in the Turkish government to discuss and resolve all outstanding problems and to give assurances that will regulate the relationship between the two neighbors," al-Maliki said late Monday.

Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi is scheduled to be in Ankara on Tuesday for talks with Turkish officials.

Iraq agreed to crack down on the PKK, which the United States and the European Union consider a terrorist organization, in an agreement signed in late September.

But Turkey says the group recently has launched attacks from Iraq's largely autonomous Kurdish provinces that have claimed the lives of 30 Turkish troops and civilians in the country's southeast.

The Kurdish north has been a haven of peace compared to the rest of Iraq, which has been ravaged by four years of war. But Turkish gunners shelled farms across the border over the weekend, setting Kurdish fields and orchards ablaze. Watch children pick up pieces of what appear to be missile fragment not far from the Turkey border »

No injuries were reported, but Iraqi officials say as many as 30,000 people could be forced to leave villages near the frontier.

"Sheltering these people will be a challenge for the local authorities," said Hameed Salih, a spokesman for the government in Iraq's Dohuk province. "Therefore, we do hope this will not continue."

Salih denied the PKK was using Iraqi territory to stage attacks.

Turkey has about 60,000 troops in the border region, and the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked his parliament Monday to authorize a military incursion.

Government spokesman Cemil Cicek said lawmakers could vote on the measure -- which would give Erdogan blanket authority to launch operations for a year -- as early as Wednesday.

"The only target is the PKK terrorist organization. No other group is our target," Cicek said. "Everyone who lives in Iraq are our brothers and our friends. We hope that peace comes to Iraq and to our areas without a need to use this option."

U.S. officials fear that would undermine the stability of the American-backed government in Baghdad and jeopardize the supply lines that support U.S. troops in Iraq.

"We all have an interest in a stable Iraq and a desire to see the PKK brought to justice, but we urge the Turks to continue their discussions with us and the Iraqis and to show restraint from any potentially destabilizing actions," U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Monday.

The U.S. has urged Iraq to crack down on the rebels and held weekend talks in Ankara to persuade its NATO ally to stay its hand. But the efforts have been complicated by a push in the U.S. House of Representatives to declare the Ottoman-era killings of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians a "genocide," a sensitive topic among Turks.

Erdogan's government has condemned the resolution and threatened to curtail military cooperation with the U.S. if it passes. E-mail to a friend

CNN senior international correspondent Nic Robertson contributed to this report.

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