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Turkey's parliament has given permission for the government to launch military operations into Iraq in pursuit of Kurdish rebels.

The vote was taken in defiance of pressure from the US and Iraq, which have called on Turkey for restraint.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the motion does not mean a military operation is imminent.

But he said Turkey needed to be able to respond to a recent rise in bomb attacks blamed on PKK rebels from Iraq.

Turkish MPs backed him overwhelmingly, by 507 votes to 19.

As the vote was being counted, US President George W Bush strongly urged Turkey, a key ally, not to carry out the threatened action.


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He said Washington was "making it clear to Turkey it is not in their interest to send more troops in... there is a better way to deal with the issue".

The recent deaths of 13 Turkish soldiers in an ambush blamed on the PKK has put the government under renewed pressure to respond with force.

What Turkey wants now is a convincing response from allies and neighbours, says the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Ankara.

Turkey has been calling for help in tackling the PKK for months. Now it hopes the rest of the world will realise it is serious, our correspondent says.

'Illegal'

But the US and Iraq fear any incursion could destabilise the only relatively calm region of Iraq.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki phoned the Turkish prime minister before the vote, saying he was "absolutely determined" to remove the PKK from Iraq and pleading for more time, according to Turkey's Anatolia news agency.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, urged Turkey not to make an incursion, but also called on the PKK "to end the so-called military activity".

The autonomous Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq warned Turkish MPs that any intervention would be "illegal". It has denied providing the PKK with any help.


HAVE YOUR SAY
They have no right to enter Iraq and I hope that they will be resisted strongly with all available resources should they try
Mike, Surrey

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Iraqi Kurds give their views
Explosive potential of raid

The rebels themselves said they would meet force with force.

The chief of the PKK's executive council, Murat Karayilan, told the Kurdish Hawlati newspaper: "Thousands of PKK guerrillas are on standby to fight Turkish army forces."

However Syrian President Bashar Assad, visiting Turkey, said he supported the country's right to take the action "against terrorism and terrorist activities".

Armenian question

President Bush, speaking during a press conference, criticised the US Congress for jeopardising US relations with Turkey with a planned vote to recognise the mass killing of Armenians in Ottoman times as genocide.

"One thing Congress should not be doing is sorting out the historical record of the Ottoman Empire," he said.

Although a congressional committee has supported the motion, its chances of passing a full vote appear to be waning.

Key Democrats in the US House of Representatives have joined Republicans to warn that US strategic interests could be damaged by the largely symbolic resolution.

Voices from Kurdish Iraq on Turkey
Kurdish Iraqis near the Turkish border react to Ankara's decision to allow cross-border incursions into northern Iraq, to hunt down Kurdish PKK rebels.

MATEEN, KURDISH, 50, RETIRED, IN DOHUK

I am 40-50km (25-30 miles) from the Turkish border. I could hear the shelling from Turkey earlier this week and it was heavier than ever. It's been going on for a few months.

There is great concern here locally about what Turkey is doing. This is the only secure region in Iraq. Tens of thousands of refugees have come here from other parts of the country, from Mosul, from Baghdad.


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So, if there is any incursion from Turkey, it will mean the whole country will be in turmoil.

I have never come across any of the PKK. If they are here at all they would be in the highlands on the border with Turkey, not in the residential areas.

Even if there were a few hundred PKK in the whole region - there are thousands in Turkey. Turkey should sort out its own problems inside its own borders before doing anything else.

Turkey should handle this internal issue through dialogue. It cannot continue to deny the millions of Kurds inside Turkey their rights.

Turkey is using the PKK as an excuse to invade our area.

It has other agendas - shared by Iran and Syria - all of whom are against any Kurdish entity coming into existence, even inside Iraq.

The main reason why Turkey is doing this now is to disrupt next month's Kurdish referendum in Iraq.

JALAL SHEIK YUNIS, KURDISH, 61, ENGINEER, IN IRBIL

Because of its relative prosperity and security, this province has become an example that other parts of Iraq want to follow.


We are all Iraqis and have strong ties despite our differences

Should there be an invasion it would destroy what we have managed to build here in the last 15 years.

Bear in mind, economic investment in this region has been largely Iranian and Turkish.

However, if the Turks invade, we would fight them, all of us including those Arab Iraqis who live here.

We are all Iraqis and have strong ties despite our differences. We have grown used to wars.

People are not scared and the atmosphere is calm.

I feel sure the world will not stand by and allow us to suffer the fate of the Armenians who were massacred by the Ottoman Empire. The world has changed.

From BBC.Arabic.com

DWAN JAMALELDIN GARIB, KURDISH, 27, SALES ANALYST, IRBIL

I don't anticipate a full-scale invasion by Turkey.

I suspect what they are planning is a limited incursion to target the PKK.

But if Turkey launches a full assault, I think people would take up arms and resist, even though they have had enough of wars.

There is a great deal of sympathy here for the plight of the Turkish Kurds and the discrimination they endure in Turkey.

We hope that the world stands up to this Turkish arrogance and protect us.