ANKARA (AFP) -- Turkey and Iraq on Friday signed an agreement aimed at combating Turkish Kurd rebels taking refuge in northern Iraq, the Turkish interior minister said.

Under the agreement, the two countries pledged to ""prevent the activities of terrorist organizations and primarily the PKK,"" Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay said after he and his Iraqi counterpart, Jawad Al-Bolani, inked the accord.
The separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and much of the international community, has been accused of using bases in northern Iraq to mount attacks across the border against Turkish targets.
Atalay said, however, that the two sides failed to agree on a proposed provision concerning the ""strengthening of cooperation in border areas"" and that negotiations on the issue would continue.
He was referring to a draft provision that would have reportedly allowed Turkey -- with prior Iraqi authorization -- to conduct ""hot pursuit"", or small-scale military operations across the border to hunt down militants of the PKK.
But the Iraqi Kurds, who run northern Iraq and have been accused by Ankara of tolerating and even aiding the PKK, raised objections to the provision, according to media reports.
Ankara has threatened unilateral military action into northern Iraq to strike at PKK bases if Baghdad and Washington fail to curb the rebels, who have stepped up attacks inside Turkey this year.