ANKARA, Sept 6: Turkey and the United States have agreed that Turkish troops will be responsible for a separate sector and be under Turkish command if Ankara decides to send peacekeepers to Iraq, Anatolia news agency quoted Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul as saying on Saturday.

“There is an agreement on a separate sector and command,” Mr Gul told reporters in a plane on his way to Italy, where he was to participate in a meeting of foreign ministers of EU countries and candidate nations.

The agreement was reached during talks between US and Turkish military officials in Ankara on Thursday.

Talks on the conditions of a possible Turkish military assistance were to continue in the coming weeks, Mr Gul said.

The Turkish government is willing to send troops to Iraq, but it has yet to make a formal decision, which will also require the approval of the Turkish parliament, where many legislators have expressed vocal opposition to the plan.

To allay the misgivings of its sole Muslim NATO ally, Washington faces two uphill tasks — to take action against an estimated 5,000 Turkish Kurd rebels in hiding in northern Iraq and convince the Iraqi leadership — particularly the Iraqi Kurds — that Turkey could help stabilize their country.

Ankara is urging Washington to purge northern Iraq of militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an armed separatist group which both countries consider a terrorist organization.

The stance the United States will adopt is of critical importance for Turkey now that the PKK, also known as KADEK, has ended a four-year unilateral ceasefire.

“I expect the United States not to show tolerance” to the rebels, Mr Gul said, adding that a separate US delegation would discuss the issue in Ankara in the coming days.

But while Ankara and Washington appeared to edge closer to a deal, voices were raised in Baghdad against Turkish involvement.

Iraq’s new foreign minister, Hoshyar Zebari, a senior Kurdish leader, said on Friday that peacekeepers from Turkey or other neighbours would not be welcome.

The Turkish deployment has been mooted for Al Anbar province, a non-Kurdish Sunni region that stretches from west of Baghdad right up to the borders with Syria and Jordan.

“The problem is the corridor,” said Mr Zebari, noting that Turkish troops would have to cross through Kurdish northern Iraq and set up bases along the way.

Tension has been high between Turkey and the Iraqi Kurds since the invasion. —AFP