Kurd rebel group denies carrying out Ankara attack

ANKARA, May 23 (Reuters) Turkey's separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) denied today carrying out a bomb attack which killed six people in Ankara, after Turkish officials said the attack bore the hallmarks of the group.

''We have no connection with the attack,'' the PKK said in a statement posted on the Firat news agency Web site, which has close links to the guerrillas.

The outlawed PKK has been fighting for an ethnic homeland in Turkey since 1984 and Ankara blames it for more than 30,000 deaths. It has carried out suicide bombings in the past.

Ankara's governor said earlier today authorities had identified the remains of a suicide bomber who carried out the attack in Turkey's capital on Tuesday, and the type of explosives used pointed to Kurdish separatists.

''It is understood the incident was caused by the explosion of a plastic (explosives) bomb on this person's body and the incident's style matches the methods of the separatist organisation,'' Kemal Onal said after an emergency meeting called after the attack, the worst in the capital in at least a decade.

A would-be suicide bomber was detained in the southern city Adana while trying to escape in a car, Governor Ilhan Atis told Anatolian news agency. The woman had 11.3 kg (25 lb) of explosive, two hand bombs and a dozen detonators.

Onal said 91 people were wounded in the attack, which came amid political tension in the EU-aspirant state. Authorities had earlier said 102 were wounded. Several Pakistanis were injured.

Turkish media said eight people had been detained in connection with the blast, but police declined to comment.

Leading newspapers Hurriyet and Radikal wrote that the blast took place shortly before senior military commanders, including the head of the armed forces, were due to pass the area.

Turkey's lira currency fell today, hit by worries over domestic turmoil. Turkey is a major tourism destination.

TENSIONS RISE The PKK, considered a terrorist group by the United States, the European Union and Turkey, ended a unilateral ceasefire on May 18 and security experts had expected attacks to escalate.

Turkey has repeatedly urged Iraq and the United States to crack down on an estimated 4,000 PKK rebels who use northern Iraq as a springboard to attack targets inside Turkey.

Last month, armed forces Chief of Staff Yasar Buyukanit called for a military push into northern Iraq to quash them.

''Our security forces will do whatever necessary ... against terror, there should be no doubt on this,'' Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told reporters when asked about the possible operations.

Erdogan's Islamist-rooted government has called a national election ahead of schedule to resolve a conflict with the secularist elite over a recent presidential election.

Kurdish parties accuse his government of sidelining their candidates. Kurdish separatists, leftist militants and hardline Islamists have all launched bomb attacks in Turkey in the past.

In 2003, 30 people were killed and 146 wounded when suicide car bombs hit two synagogues in Istanbul. Five days later, 32 people were killed in similar attacks on the British consulate and HSBC bank in the city. The bombs were blamed on al Qaeda.

REUTERS RN BST2112