Kurdish - Turkish reconciliation discussions

A Turkish - US - British delegation is heading tomorrow to Iraq to discuss the possibility of reviving Kurdish - Turkish reconciliation discussions.

Turkish diplomatic sources said that the delegation will try to persuade Masoud Barzani, the leader of Kurdish Democratic Party, to convene with Jalal Talabani, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, in a bilateral summit to settle the interior Kurdish conflict and discuss the development of political, military and security positions in northern Iraq.

US diplomatic sources in Ankara said that Turkey will not agree on any Kurdish reconciliation whose result would be securing protection for elements of the prohibited Kurdish Labors Party (PKK), who has been fighting Turkish security forces since 1984 to obtain self-rule in southeast Turkey, where the Kurdish majority lives.