Scrambling to dissuade Ankara from military action, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said he was determined to act against the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which attacks Turkey from its bases in northern Iraq, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Maliki told his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the telephone that Baghdad "is absolutely determined to end the activities and the presence" of the PKK in Iraq, the semi-official agency said, quoting unnamed sources.

He said he had given orders to the autonomous Kurdish administration in northern Iraq to take action against the PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, the report said.

Maliki asked for "a new opportunity" to resolve the issue through diplomatic means and proposed talks.

Erdogan responded he would welcome talks with Iraqi officials, but warned that Ankara cannot tolerate any "further waste of time," Anatolia said.

Turkish lawmakers were expected Wednesday to authorise the government to order one or multiple cross-border raids into northern Iraq within a period of one year.

Erdogan has said the parliamentary authorisation would not mean immediate military action.

Turkey says the PKK enjoys free movement in northern Iraq, is tolerated by the region's Kurdish leaders and obtains weapons and explosives there for attacks across the border in Turkey.

Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who held emergency talks with Turkish leaders here Tuesday, said Baghdad should be given time to curb the PKK under an agreement the two countries signed last month.

"Give us time to join forces with Turkey to tackle this problem," he said Wednesday before he left Ankara.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, urged Turkey to give up plans of military action and and called on the PKK to end violence.

The Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq warned that a Turkish incursion would be "illegal and a violation of international law."

The PKK problem is a "Turkish internal problem," spokesman Jamal Abdullah insisted.

Wary of the prospect of fresh turmoil in the conflict-torn country the United States too has repeatedly urged Turkey against any unilateral military action in Iraq.

But Washington has lost leverage with Ankara because of a pending Congressional vote on a resolution branding the 1915-17 Ottoman Turk massacres of Armenians as genocide, which has prompted Turkish warnings of reprisals against its NATO ally.

Faced with mounting PKK violence, Ankara says it is left with no choice but military action because neither Washington nor Baghdad is helping to curb the rebels.

The PKK has waged a bloody campaign for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

Erdogan came under pressure for tougher action after the rebels killed 15 soldiers in two days this month and were blamed for an ambush of a van days earlier in which 12 people were shot dead.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, on a visit to Turkey, said Wednesday that Damascus would back a possible Turkish incursion to pursue the PKK, which he described as "Turkey's legitimate right."

NATO, meanwhile, urged restraint.

In a telephone call to Turkish President Abdullah Gul, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop de Scheffer said "all parties should exercise the greatest possible restraint precisely in this time of great tensions," a spokesman said in Brussels.

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