Iraqi Kurds say Turkish attack not right option

BAGHDAD, Oct 17 (Reuters) The Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq today said that a Turkish attack on Kurdish separatists there would not be effective and would only harm regional stability.

Turkey's parliament resoundingly approved a motion allowing troops to cross into northern Iraq to hunt down rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), brushing aside appeals from the United States and the Baghdad government.

''Everyone in Turkey, even the ruling establishment, knows very well that their country will not reach their goals by following the military option in trying to solve the PKK issue,'' the regional government (KRG) said in a statement.

Jamal Abdullah, a spokesman for the Kurdish government, added that it would not take any particular steps other than to ''express our acute resentment. We believe the resolution will not serve the stability of Iraq, Turkey or the region''.

Washington fears a Turkish incursion could destabilise the most peaceful part of Iraq and possibly the wider region by encouraging others such as arch-foe Iran to intervene.

Iraq's government said today it would send a team to Ankara for talks to find a peaceful solution to the crisis.

Turkey keeps a relatively small contingent of troops at several bases in northern Iraq dating back to the time of previous offensives in the 1990s. Those offensives failed to eliminate the PKK guerrillas.

''The Turkish parliamentarians should have studied the roots of the PKK problem to reach the appropriate solution and not given their votes to a hurried resolution taking the military option over all other options. We don't believe it will be effective,'' the KRG said.

The PKK said in a statement that its fighters were on full alert for any attack by the Turkish military and would defend the Kurds and their interests until ''the last drop of blood''.

''The resolution is directed against Iraqi sovereignty and is against the interests of all Iraqis,'' Abdul Rahman Chaderchi, a senior PKK official, told Reuters.

''The Turkish plans are aimed at targeting the Kurds, their interests and their achievements wherever they are, in Turkey or Iraq, and this resolution has proved it.'' REUTERS RSA RN2344