ANKARA, Oct 14: Turkey said on Monday it would set up a “security belt” in northern Iraq if the United States hits Baghdad, and renewed a threat of military action to prevent the establishment of a Kurdish state in the region.

Defence Minister Sabahattin Cakmakoglu said in an interview with NTV television that if a US operation against Iraq triggered a refugee exodus, Turkish troops would move into northern Iraq to stop the wave within Iraqi borders.

“This will be a force of a number sufficient for such a job. This will at the same time (ensure) our border security and constitute a security belt,” Cakmakoglu said.

Turkey, which suspects Iraqi Kurds of wanting to set up an independent state, has acknowledged it is already keeping several hundred troops in northern Iraq.

Ankara fears that a Kurdish state in the region could incite its own Kurds to separatism at a time when a 15-year Kurdish rebellion for self-rule in adjoining southeastern Turkey has abated.

“The Turkish armed forces are a deterrent force both with respect to its size and its weapons ... If this deterrent force impedes the situation we do not want in Iraq, it will have have completed its objective,” Cakmakoglu said.

“But if we do not get a result through this deterrent force, then we have to move one step forward. This could be a show of force if necessary, or an intervention,” he added.

Cakmakoglu spoke about a number of military options available to Turkey, while stressing that parliamentary approval was required for operations outside the country.

“I do not see the possibility of a war at present, but we will have to bring the issue to parliament and take a decision, be it a dispatch of soldiers, a (military) exercise, or even a show of force to indicate that we are balancing the situation,” he said.—AFP