By Kristin Roberts and Zerin Elci
ANKARA (Reuters) - The United States urged NATO ally Turkeyon Thursday to end its offensive against Kurdish PKK rebels innorthern Iraq swiftly, but said it would not threaten towithdraw intelligence help.
Washington fears prolonging the Turkish operation, whichbegan on February 21, will undermine stability in the region,particularly Iraq, though it backs Ankara's mission to crushthe PKK and late last year began providing significantintelligence.
Visiting U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he hadbeen given no timetable for a Turkish withdrawal.
"The United States believes the current operation should beas short and as precisely targeted as possible," he toldreporters. Before arriving in Ankara he had made clear that byshort, he meant days or a week or two, not months.
"A short time is a relative concept, it could be one day orone year," Turkey's military General Staff, General YasarBuyukanit was quoted by Turkish television as saying.
But Gates, who held talks with Buyukanit, Turkey'spresident and Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, played down anydifferences, saying the United States and Turkey had sharedinterests.
"I think that those interests are probably not advanced bymaking threats, by threatening to cut off intelligence."
"The key is for us to make clear what our interests are,our concerns about the situation in Iraq," he said.
The Bush administration has been sharing intelligence withits chief military ally in the region, mainly to help itsaerial bombing campaign to destroy PKK havens. If Ankara doesnot heed Washington's call to complete the operation quickly,Washington could curtail or cut off that intelligence flow.
Turkey's defence minister said troops, battling icy winterconditions, would stay in Iraq as long as necessary toaccomplish their goal of ending the PKK threat from Iraq.
Thousands of Turkish troops, backed by warplanes and attackhelicopters, crossed the border on February 21 to root outKurdistan Workers Party (PKK) fighters and destroy theirnumerous bases.
"It should be clear that military action alone will not endthis terrorist threat," Gates added, saying Ankara must alsotake political and economic steps to isolate the PKK guerrillasand help support Turkey's large ethnic Kurdish minority.
Iraqi Kurds, long suspicious of neighbour Turkey, fearAnkara is seeking to undermine the autonomy of oil-rich Iraq'sKurdistan region. Ankara says it only wants to end terrorism.
It is Turkey's first major ground offensive into northernIraq in a decade.
The outlawed PKK has been gradually squeezed out of Turkeyand instead has been using remote mountainous northern Iraq astheir main base in their decades-long armed campaign for ethnicrights and self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.
Ankara blames the separatist movement for the deaths ofnearly 40,000 people since it began its armed struggle inmainly Kurdish southeast Turkey in 1984.
Turkish leaders have come under renewed domestic pressureto crack down on the estimated 3,000 PKK members, including itsleadership, who use northern Iraq as a base to stage deadlycross-border attacks against Turkish military and civilians.
MORE TROOPS
Senior military sources in southeast Turkey told Reutersseveral hundred Turkish soldiers were ferried across the borderby helicopter into northern Iraq on Wednesday evening.
A senior military source said around 10,000 troops wereinvolved in the northern Iraqi operation, much centred aroundthe Zap valley, a PKK stronghold.
Units of several hundred special forces, backed bysoldiers, were leading the charge against rebel camps across anisolated part of northern Iraq, which is not under the controlof the semi-autonomous northern Iraqi Kurdish administration.
Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek, in a newspaperinterview, tried to quell mounting international concern.
"We will leave Iraq as soon as we are done. We are notintending to remain any longer than necessary in minus 26degree temperatures," he told English language Today's Zaman.
Turkey's military has put the death toll among the PKKrebels at 230 since the campaign began. Twenty four soldiershave been killed so far.
The PKK says that more than 100 Turkish troops had beenkilled. It has not given a figure for rebel casualties.
Ankara says it is engaged in a legitimate fight againstwhat it and Washington describe as a terrorist organisation.
Acting Iraqi Prime Minister Barham Saleh said on Wednesdaya prolonged Turkish operation would lead to dire consequencesfor the region and repeated Baghdad's demand that the incursionend.
(Additional reporting by Gareth Jones in Ankara; writing byPaul de Bendern; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
