Turkish president calls on Kurdish rebels to lay down arms

ANKARA, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Abdullah Gul Friday called on the rebels of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) to lay down arms, saying that Turkey will never tolerate those who illegally carry arms and engage in terrorism.

Gul made the call at a joint press conference with visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani following their official talks at the Presidential Palace in the Turkish capital of Ankara.

Gul ruled out any tolerance to the PKK rebels in response to a question whether Turkey would consider nonmilitary solutions to end the conflict with autonomy seeking PKK rebels.

"First of all, the Turkish state will never tolerate those who illegally carry arms and engage in terrorism ... Whoever has gun in his hand should lay his weapon down," Gul said.

Terming the PKK as a trouble for both Turkey and Iraq, the Turkish president said the rebels who launch attacks on Turkey from Iraqi soil pose problems for both neighbors.

Talabani arrived here earlier in the day for a two-day working visit upon an invitation by Gul with an aim to improving bilateral relations between the two countries.

His tour came just one week after Turkey ended an eight-day large scale military incursion into northern Iraq against the PKK which was labelled by Ankara and Washington as a terrorist group.

Talabani, who was accompanied by several high-ranking officials, will hold talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday and is also expected to attend a meeting of the Turkish-Iraqi Business Council before returning to Iraq.

Talabani, a Kurd, has long said he was interested in visiting Ankara, but Turkey's former President Ahmet Necdet Sezer had refused to invite him despite strong economic and trade ties, worrying that Iraqi Kurds were supporting the PKK.