ISTANBUL (Reuters) -- Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called on Baghdad on Friday to shut down camps run by separatist Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and to hand over guerrilla leaders.

His comments came two days after the Ankara parliament, in defiance of Washington, authorized Turkish troops to cross the mountainous border into northern Iraq to track down the rebels, who use the region as a base from which to attack Turkey.
Baghdad has urged Turkey to refrain from military action, saying this could destabilize the wider region, but has also told the rebel fighters to leave Iraq.
“What will satisfy us is the closure of all PKK (rebel) camps, including their training facilities, and the handover of the terrorist leaders to us,” Erdogan told reporters after attending Friday prayers at an Istanbul mosque.
Erdogan welcomed Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari’s call on Thursday in an interview with Reuters for the rebels to leave Iraqi territory, but said the announcement was “late.”
Some 3,000 rebels of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), including its leaders, are believed to be hiding in mountainous, mainly Kurdish northern Iraq.
Erdogan’s government is under heavy public pressure to act against the PKK after a series of deadly attacks on Turkish troops.
Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek was quoted on Friday as saying Turkey was serious about sending troops into Iraq. The Pentagon angered Turks after Wednesday’s vote by suggesting Ankara lacked the appetite for military action.
“We have made the decision and we will do what is necessary. We are not reluctant. There is no going back on this,” Today’s Zaman newspaper quoted Cicek as saying in an interview.
Cicek, who oversees the coordination of Turkey’s counter-terrorism efforts, said “military needs” would dictate the timing and scope of any army operation.
Parliament’s authorization is valid for one year but sets out no timetable for military action. Erdogan has signaled previously that military operations are not imminent.
Turkey’s tough stance has helped propel global oil prices to record highs and put fresh strain on already difficult relations between Ankara and Washington, NATO allies.
Thousands of Iraqi Kurds marched on Thursday in Arbil, capital of their autonomous region, to protest against Turkey’s moves and to call for peaceful dialogue.
But Cicek repeated Ankara’s refusal to deal directly with the Iraqi Kurdish administration.
“We don’t talk with Iraqi Kurdish groups. Our interlocutor is the Iraqi government in Baghdad ... Northern Iraq is a part of Iraq,” said Cicek.
Ankara has accused Iraqi Kurdish leaders of sheltering and even actively supporting the PKK, a group it blames for the deaths of more than 30,000 people since it launched its armed struggle for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984..