Turkish warplanes and troops attacked Kurdish rebels inside Iraq this week, security sources said yesterday, but Ankara wants to hold back from any major incursion for now to give diplomacy a chance.

Turkey moved more troops to the mountainous Iraqi border, keeping up pressure on Baghdad to honour promises to crack down on an estimated 3,000 rebels of Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who use northern Iraq as a base.

Security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed a series of sorties between Sunday and yesterday evening in which Turkish warplanes flew 20 kilometres into Iraq and some 300 ground troops advanced about 10 kilometres.

"Further 'hot pursuit' raids into northern Iraq can be expected, though none have taken place so far today," a military official said yesterday.

The sorties killed 34 PKK rebels and all the Turkish troops involved in the operations were now back in Turkey, he said. But Abdul Rahman Jaderji, a PKK spokesman in northern Iraq, said there had been no direct fighting between the two sides since clashes on Sunday in which 12 Turkish soldiers died. He said Turkish troops had been shelling areas of northern Iraq, but little new shelling had been reported yesterday.

Baghdad has pledged to act against the rebels. A Turkish official yesterday quoted Iraqi President Jalal Talabani as saying Iraq might hand over PKK militants to Turkey, but Mr Talabani denied it.

"We have said many times that the PKK leadership does not exist in Kurdish cities but are living with thousands of their fighters in the Qandil mountains, so it is not possible for us to arrest and hand them over to Turkey," he said in a statement.

The lira currency firmed to 1.2100 against the dollar on the back of Mr Talabani's reported comments.

The Turkish official described as a "final chance" for diplomacy a planned visit by an Iraqi delegation to Ankara today. At Turkey's request, the team will be headed by Iraqi Defence Minister General Abdel Qader Jassim.