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President Abdullah Gul will on Monday arrive in Baghdad on the first visit by a Turkish head of state in 33 years, for talks on the thorny issue of Kurdish rebels, officials said. "He is expected on Monday in Baghdad, where he will meet a number of Iraqi officials," the head of Iraqs presidency, Nassir al-Ani, told AFP on Sunday.
In Ankara, a presidential aide said Gul is expected to meet his Iraqi counterpart Jalal Talabani as well as Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki during his stay in Baghdad until Tuesday.
The aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, refused to give further details on security grounds. Talabani a year ago paid a two-day visit to Ankara, his first to Turkey as head of state, during which he and Gul pledged to cooperate in attempts to oust rebels from Turkeys Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who have set up bases in northern Iraq.
Talabani returned to the country last week to attend the Fifth World Water Forum in Istanbul. But Gul will be the first Turkish head of state to visit neighbouring Iraq in 33 years. The last visit was by Fahri Koruturk in 1976.
Ankara wants close ties and economic co-operation with Baghdad but the safe haven the PKK enjoys in the autonomous Kurdish-run north of Iraq has long been a problem between the two countries.
Hopes of better cooperation improved after Iraq, Turkey and the United States agreed in November to form a joint committee to work on the problem. In December, Maliki visited Ankara and pledged to increase cooperation to root out the rebels. While in Istanbul, Talabani called on Ankara to consider an amnesty for the rebels to consolidate recent measures broadening Kurdish cultural freedoms and boost the prospect of lasting peace.
He also said in media interviews the Kurdish rebels are expected to heed an appeal expected next month by Kurdish political groups from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Europe to lay down their arms. The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by much of the international community, took up arms for self-rule in Turkeys Kurdish-majority south-east in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 44,000 lives. Turkey says thousands of PKK militants use the mountains of northern Iraq as a springboard for attacks on Turkish territory. Turkish warplanes have frequently bombed rebel hideouts in the region since 2007.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2009

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