PKK says talks still on for release of Turkish soldiers

ARBIL, Iraq, Saturday, (AFP)

A senior leader of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) said on Saturday that talks were continuing for the release of eight Turkish soldiers held by the rebel group.

"There is still no decision as to when the soldiers will be released," PKK foreign relations director Abdurrahman Cadirci told AFP by telephone from the group's hideout in the Qandil mountains along the Iraq-Turkey border.

"Negotiations at all levels ... Iraqi, Turkish, Kurdish and international ... are on" for their release, he said without elaborating. On Friday, the Europe-based Firat news agency said on its website that the rebels were set to release the soldiers believed to be held by PKK fighters inside Turkey.

"Sources close to the PKK said the soldiers are in good condition and are expected to be released in a few days," the news agency said.

The troops were captured by the guerrillas a fortnight ago in an ambush on a Turkish military patrol in which 12 other soldiers were killed.

The attack angered Ankara which has threatened to send troops into north Iraq where it says nearly 3,500 PKK fighters are based.

The PKK official called on Ankara on Thursday to refrain from military action and instead offer a peace plan that would enable the group to end its 23-year-old struggle for self-rule in southeastern Turkey.

But Turkish officials have rejected any possibility of a truce with a group they regard as a terrorist organization.

More than 37,000 people have died in the conflict since the PKK took up arms in 1984.