The New Nation - Internet Edition

AP, Ankara

Iraq's president says he wants a "strategic" partnership with Turkey, including getting the neighboring nation's businesses to invest in his oil-rich but war-torn country.

Jalal Talabani made the comments Saturday while wrapping up a visit aimed at easing the tension sparked by Turkey's eight-day military incursion against Kurdish rebels inside Iraq. Talabani, himself a Kurd, says Iraq wants "to forge strategic relations in all fields including oil, the economy, trade, culture and politics with Turkey." Talabani arrived in Turkey on Friday, about a week after the Turkish military ended its offensive against the separatist rebels. The rebels - who seek autonomy for Kurds in Turkey's southeast - have often launched attacks on Turkey from bases in northern Iraq.

AFP report adds: The leaders of Iraq and Turkey pledged Friday to take measures against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq during talks to soothe tensions following a Turkish cross-border offensive against the militants.

"The aim of this visit is to be able to establish strategic and solid relations with Turkey," Iraq's President Jalal Talabani said after talks with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul.

"We want our cooperation to be a model relationship for the Middle East," Talabani said through an interpreter, adding that Baghdad wanted closer energy, economic, cultural and political ties.

Welcoming Talabani to Ankara for his first visit as head of state, Gul made a similar call and said both countries would hold further talks to work out the detail of what he said was the common vision for bilateral ties. "I believe that if we tap into the great potential between Turkey and Iraq, we will produce a great neighbourly relationship," he said.

The warm messages followed recent tensions between the neighbours over a week-long ground incursion by the Turkish army into northern Iraq to hunt rebels from Kurdistan Workers's Party (PKK), which ended last week. Turkey charges that more than 2,000 PKK militants use northern Iraq as a base for their separatist campaign against Ankara and accuses Iraqi Kurds of tolerating the rebels.

At the time, Baghdad slammed the incursion as an unacceptable violation of its sovereignty, while the United States feared it might escalate into a broader conflict between Turkish forces and Iraqi Kurds.

The Turkish military warned this week that it could carry out more cross-border strikes on the rebels if need be.