Visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said on Sunday that all options, including military actions were possible to resolve the Kurdish rebel issue in northern Iraq, the state media reported.

 

"We have all kinds of options, all of them are on the table, we can use diplomacy or military means," Babacan said after meeting with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki.

 

"We demand all our friends to support us over our fight against terror," he added.

 

Babacan also thanked Iran for its fight with the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).

 

Mottaki, for his part, said he hoped the cooperation between Iran and Turkey could solve this issue as soon as possible.

 

Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops along the mountainous border with Iraq in preparation for the cross-border operation to crush the about 3,000 strong PKK rebels, which was approved by Ankara's parliament earlier this month.

 

Turkish security sources have confirmed a series of attacks by warplanes since last Sunday into Iraqi territory, although Ankara has said it still hopes diplomacy can stave off the need for the full-scale ground invasion.

 

Iran has recently been echoing Turkey's anger on a string of violent actions by Kurdish rebels. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has slammed "terrorists" operating in northern Iraq in telephone talks with his Iraqi and Turkish counterparts, according to the state media.

 

Turkey was not the only one who had military conflicts with the Kurdish rebels. In northwestern Iran in recent months, Tehran also fought against the militant Kurdish group PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) which was linked to the PKK and launched a string of deadly attacks against Iranian security forces.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2007)