Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan warned on Sunday that Turkey could launch an attack on Kurdish militants in northern Iraq but failed to win the support of neighbouring Iran for a military strike.
Babacan said after talks with Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki that Ankara had ruled out no option in its fight against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels who have carried out a string of attacks in eastern Turkey.
"We have different instruments. We can use diplomacy or we can resort to military means," Babacan said in Tehran. "All of these are on the table. "The Turkish people have lost their patience... We are asking all our friends to support us in this endeavour, our fight against terror," he added.
However Mottaki gave a highly equivocal answer to a question over whether Iran would support a Turkish military strike on northern Iraq against the militants. "I think that we will be able to overcome these small grouplets," he said. "There are various ways of going about this. We hope our cooperation will allow us to solve this as soon as possible."
The Iraqi authorities also said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad agreed with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki that that crisis could still be solved by diplomacy alone.
"Both leaders agreed the activities of the PKK were damaging the interests of Iraq, Turkey and Iran but stressed that military action is not the only option to deal with it," Maliki's office quoted the leaders as saying.
Expectations of Turkish military action have mounted after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would launch a military strike when necessary against PKK rebels who have taken sanctuary in northern Iraq.
Iran has in recent weeks been echoing Turkey's frustration over the failure of the authorities in northern Iraq to crack down on Kurdish rebels. The militant Kurdish group PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan), linked to the PKK, has been behind a string of deadly attacks on security forces in north-western Iran in recent months.
Iran's Kordestan, Kermanshah and West Azarbaijan provinces, which border northern Iraq, have substantial Kurdish populations. Iran's military confirmed last month that Tehran has been shelling Kurdish militant bases in northern Iraq to prevent the rebels from creeping over the border into Iran and carrying out attacks.
But Tehran knows it needs to tread a fine line in the crisis. Relations between Tehran and Ankara have improved significantly in recent years but Iran will be seeking to also maintain its strong ties with Iraq's Shiite-dominated government.
Mottaki added he saw the "hand of the Zionist regime and the United States" behind the militants and accused Washington of making secret deals with the rebels. Babacan publicly disagreed, however, saying the United States had itself been a victim of terror and would not support such activities.
Babacan's meetings came ahead of a frenetic week of diplomacy for Turkey, which will see US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice hold talks with top officials in Ankara on Thursday.
Turkey accuses the Iraqi Kurds of tolerating and even supporting the PKK, which has fought for self-rule in south-east Turkey since 1984 in a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives. Turkish media reports said the army has already massed forces along the Iraqi frontier and F-16 fighter jets are ready for "orders to strike".
Mottaki was due to hold talks on Monday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who infuriated Baghdad when he said Damascus would support a military incursion against the Kurdish rebels. Syria also has a Kurdish minority. Ahmadinejad also held telephone talks with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Turkish President Abdullah Gul, lashing out at the "terrorists" operating in northern Iraq, state media reported.
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