The United States appealed to Turkey to delay its invasion of Iraq in an effort to destroy Kurdish insurgency strongholds. Over the weekend, President George Bush telephoned Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan and urged a postponement of an invasion of Iraq. Officials said Bush, in his second phone call in three days, pledged to intensify US efforts to eliminate strongholds of the Kurdish Workers Party, or PKK, in Iraq's Kandil mountains. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also contacted her Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul. They said whatever is necessary will be done. Matthew Bryza, US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, held a press conference in Washington and promised concrete steps would be taken against the PKK soon.

The most important item in Rice-Gul's phone conversation was the PKK issue. Gul told Rice that Turkey wanted an immediate, visible, sensible, and concrete solution to the PKK issue. Turkey would be seriously hampered in its aid efforts to Iraq as long as the PKK existed, AFP reports.