No Plans for Further Turkey-Iraq Talks

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The officials would leave Turkey around midday.

Turkish and Iraqi officials said on Saturday there were no plans for further talks between Turkey and an Iraqi delegation visiting Ankara to seek an agreement on cracking down on Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.

Turkey rejected a series of proposals on Friday evening offered by a high-level Iraqi delegation, led by Defence Minister General Abdel Qader Jassim, as insufficient and taking too long to take effect.

The delegation was in Ankara to try to avert a possible major cross-border operation by Turkey against Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas.

The officials, who declined to be named, told Reuters the Iraqi delegation, which included U.S. military and Iraqi Kurdish regional government officials, would leave Turkey around midday.

Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops on the frontier before a possible cross-border operation against about 3,000 PKK guerrillas, who launch deadly attacks into Turkey from Iraq.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly said Turkey will not tolerate any more PKK attacks from Iraq and has called for immediate steps by U.S. and Iraqi authorities in order to avert a military operation.

A senior Turkish diplomat, who declined to be named, told Reuters late on Friday the Iraqi delegation had offered proposals that included cutting logistical support to the PKK, limiting their movements and closing offices linked to them.

Ankara wants PKK guerrillas, including their leaders, handed over and for their camps in northern Iraq to be shut down. Iraq says it has no control over the separatist fighters.

The Iraqi-Turkish talks came ahead of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to Ankara on Nov. 2 to discuss the crisis and before a regional conference in Istanbul on Nov. 2-3, where foreign ministers will discuss Iraq.