ANKARA (Reuters):

Turkish helicopters and fighter jets pounded Kurdish rebel positions yesterday as diplomatic efforts began in Ankara to avert a major offensive against the guerrillas based in northern Iraq.

Turkey described as unsatisfactory a series of proposals offered by a high-level Iraqi delegation to Ankara to prevent a major military operation against Kurdish rebels in Iraq, a senior Turkish diplomat said, and demanded that Baghdad hand over all separatist rebels in the country.

"Everyone (PKK members in northern Iraq) there is guilty. They are criminals at least for being a member of a terrorist organisation," Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said. "We want all of them to be handed over," he said, adding that Ankara had given Iraq a list of Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.

Cicek was speaking in a televised interview as Iraqi and United States officials met Turkish officials in Ankara in a bid to stop Turkey launching an incursion into northern Iraq.

100,000 troops at border

Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops along the frontier before a possible cross-border operation to crush about 3,000 guerrillas of the outlawed separatist PKK who launch deadly attacks into Turkey from northern Iraq.