ANKARA, Oct 17: Turkey’s parliament resoundingly approved a motion on Wednesday, allowing troops to cross into northern Iraq to hunt down Kurdish rebels there, but its Western allies and Baghdad urged Ankara to refrain from military action.

As parliament voted in Ankara by 507 votes to 19 in favour of the motion, US President George W. Bush said it would not be in Nato member Turkey’s interests to send troops into Iraq.

Washington fears a Turkish incursion could destabilise the most peaceful part of Iraq and possibly the wider region by encouraging others such as Iran to intervene.

Iraq’s government said on Wednesday it would send a team to Ankara for further talks to find a peaceful solution to the crisis. Nato and the European Union also urged restraint.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has played down expectations of any imminent attack but the parliamentary vote gives Nato’s second biggest army the legal basis to cross the mountainous border as and when it sees fit.

“What matters is what parliament has said,” Erdogan told reporters as he left the assembly after the vote.

Erdogan is under heavy public pressure to act after a series of deadly attacks on its troops by the rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), who use northern Iraq as a base.

Ankara’s stance has helped propel global oil prices to record highs above $88 a barrel.

Fearing possible rebel sabotage, Turkey has beefed up security for a major oil pipeline carrying Caspian crude from the Azeri capital Baku via Georgia to the Turkish Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, a senior energy ministry source said.

Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek told parliament any army incursion would target only the estimated 3,000 PKK rebels in Iraq.

He said Turkey would also continue to use economic and diplomatic measures in its fight against terrorism.

Opposition parties attacked US policies in the region.

They repeated Turkish fears the policies would lead to the creation of an independent Kurdish state which Ankara says could reignite separatism among its own ethnic Kurdish population.

Only the small pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) spoke against the motion, arguing that military action would worsen the economic plight of Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.

Bush repeated US concerns. “They (Turkey) have had troops stationed there for quite a while. We don’t think it’s in their interest to send more troops in,” he told a news conference.

Turkey keeps a relatively small contingent of troops at several bases in northern Iraq dating back to the time of previous offensives in the 1990s. Those offensives failed to eliminate the PKK guerrillas.

The European Commission urged Turkey, a candidate for EU membership, to avoid taking unilateral action in Iraq.

“It is crucial that Turkey continues to tackle this problem through cooperation between the relevant authorities,” Commission spokeswoman Krisztina Nagy said in Brussels.

Analysts say that despite its tough rhetoric Turkey may limit itself to aerial bombardment of rebel targets and small forays across the border this time, and avoid a major incursion.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki telephoned Erdogan to reiterate his commitment to combating the PKK.

Iraq’s president, who is a Kurd, condemned the PKK tactics.

“We consider the activities of the PKK against the interests of the Kurdish people and against the interests of Turkey. We have asked the PKK to stop fighting and end military activity,” President Jalal Talabani said during a visit to Paris.

Ankara blames the PKK, considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union, for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since the group launched its armed struggle for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.—Reuters