ANKARA, 25 May 2007 — Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to support any Turkish military incursion in Iraq against Kurdish rebel bases there after a deadly suicide bombing in Ankara blamed on the militants.

Upping the pressure on its southern neighbor, Ankara urged Baghdad yesterday to act against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) holed up in northern Iraq.

“We expect urgent and resolute measures,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Bilman told reporters shortly after reports of more violence with a land mine explosion attributed to the PKK killing six soldiers in the southeast.

Erdogan said late Wednesday his government would secure parliamentary authorization if the army sought to conduct a cross-border operation targeting PKK bases.

“It is out of the question for us to disagree on this issue with our...soldiers,” he told the private ATV network. “When the time comes, we will take the necessary step, there will be no delay.”

Officials said the method of Tuesday’s suicide bomb attack in Ankara, which killed six people, and the type of explosives used tallied with past practices of the PKK, which has been fighting for self-rule in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast since 1984.

Ankara charges that the Iraqi Kurds, who run an autonomous administration in northern Iraq, tolerate — and even assist — thousands of PKK rebels who have found refuge in their region.

It says the PKK enjoys unrestricted movement in the mountain enclave and obtains weapons and explosives for attacks inside Turkey.

In a diplomatic note handed to Baghdad on April 9, Turkey demanded that Iraq capture and hand over PKK members, close down organizations linked to the group and put the group on its list of terrorist organizations.

Baghdad responded on May 17, voicing “its intention to cooperate on the issue of PKK terrorism,” Bilman said in a statement.

“We continue to closely follow up on our demands from Iraq...and cooperation opportunities in this field,” he said.

Violence in southeastern Turkey increased after the army said last month that it had launched large-scale operations against the PKK in what has become an annual event as the spring thaw makes it easier for rebels to cross the frontier.