The three key Iraqi neighbors are coordinating efforts "to keep the unity and the territorial integrity of Iraq," Bussaina Shaaban, head of the ministry's information office, told reporters.

She said that the three countries, which all have Kurdish minorities, also wanted to stop the suffering of the Iraqi people.

Syria, which has loudly expressed its opposition to the US-led war on Iraq, urged Iran and Turkey to join its efforts to prevent the break-up of Iraq, which could encourage Kurdish separatist movements on their own territories.

Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul met with his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharazi in Ankara on Sunday to discuss the Iraq war and its repercussions.

Gul is due in Damascus next Sunday for consulting with Syrian officials on the same matter, Shaaban said. She added that Turkey's position on preventing Iraqi break-up was "very good."

Ankara is especially worried that Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq would achieve independence following the downfall of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

Kurdish fighters, backed by US special forces, have been pushing steadily toward two northern Iraqi oil centers of Mosul and Kirkuk in the past week.

Under heightened US pressure, Turkish government withheld its decision to early this month to send troops into northern Iraq. Earlier March, the Turkish parliament even turned down a US demand to deploy 62,000 troops in northern Iraq for the invasion of Iraq.

But Ankara later agreed to provide over flight rights to US and British planes to launch air strikes on Iraq.

(Xinhua News Agency April 9, 2003)