The TSK, for its part, pledged its respect for Iraq's sovereignty, noting that the ground offensive would continue until it reaches the target of ending the use of northern Iraq as a base for the PKK.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday explained that he had talked with US President George W. Bush as well as Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki regarding the cross-border operations.

"We have never been on a negative posture against the Iraqi people and we will not be," he said, adding "I wish this operation yield positive results for Turkey, the Iraqi people and the regional peace."

Turkish armed forces killed 24 PKK rebels in clashes on Friday as Ankara continued its cross-border ground operations into northern Iraq, with five soldiers also killed, said the General Staff in a statement posted on its website on late Friday.

The PKK, listed by the United States and Turkey as a terrorist group, took up arms against Turkey in 1984 with the aim of creating an ethnic homeland in the southeast of the country. More than 30,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.

(Xinhua News Agency February 25, 2008)