Turk troops kill 2 Kurdish rebels amid 'ceasefire'

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey, Oct 2 (Reuters) Turkish troops killed two guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) today, security sources said, in the first report of a fatal clash since the outlawed group declared a unilateral ceasefire.

The PKK ceasefire came into effect yesterday following a recent escalation of violence in Turkey's troubled southeast and a diplomatic drive against the rebels.

The sources said the two guerrillas were killed in a remote area east of the main regional centre of Diyarbakir. Military operations were continuing, they said.

Turkey's government and military General Staff have ignored previous PKK ceasefires, dismissing them as publicity stunts.

The head of Turkey's military General Staff, General Yasar Buyukanit, reiterated Ankara's stance today that PKK rebels must disarm and surrender to Turkish justice.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is expected to urge US President George W Bush in talks scheduled later today at the White House to crack down on an estimated 5,000 PKK fightershiding in the mountains of mainly Kurdish northern Iraq.

Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

Like Turkey, the United States and the European Union have also blacklisted the PKK as a terrorist organisation.

REUTERS LL KN1954