Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said on Tuesday that Turkey expected more cooperation from the United States in fighting against the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).

Gul told a joint press conference after talks with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the PKK was utilizing authority vacuum in the north of Iraq to launch activities harmful to Turkey.

He noted that there were thousands of PKK members in northern Iraq, adding that they have been infiltrating into Turkey recently and stepped up attacks on security forces in southeastern Turkey.

Gul's comment came as the Turkish military is preparing for a cross-border operation into Iraq to strike the bases of the PKK.

Rice agreed to help Turkey's fight against the PKK, but appeared to caution against unilateral Turkish operation in Iraq.

"We want to contribute to a stability in Iraq and not to threaten that stability or to make a difficult situation worse and that is why a cooperative approach to this problem, cooperation between Iraq, Turkey and the coalition is very important," Rice said.

Rice also met Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan after she arrived in Ankara on Tuesday for a two-day visit.

More than 37,000 people have been killed since PKK launched an armed campaign for an independent Kurdish state in southeastern Turkey in 1984.

Source: Xinhua