ANKARA, March 8 (Reuters) - President Jalal Talabani said on Saturday Iraq was keen to boost economic and political ties with Turkey a week after Ankara ended an army offensive against separatist PKK guerrillas in northern Iraq. The PKK issue and Turkey's fears that Kurds in northern Iraq aim to create their own state have strained relations between the two countries. Talabani aimed to defuse some of those tensions. "We want to establish strategic relations in every area including oil, the economy, trade, culture and politics," Talabani told a meeting with Turkish business leaders on his first visit to Turkey as head of state. Talabani also called on Turkish companies to invest in Iraq on the second day of his visit to Ankara, state-run Anatolian news agency reported. "We are ready to make it easy for you (to invest) in all regions including the country's south, Baghdad and Kurdistan," he said. Iraq's ministers of finance, oil, water resources, national security and industry were travelling with Talabani. Talabani, a Kurd, said on Friday he had called on the government of Iraq's Kurdish autonomous region to pressure the PKK to give up their weapons or leave the region. Ankara has been highly critical of Baghdad's failure to crack down on several thousand Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) guerrillas who use a remote, mountainous part of northern Iraq as a base from which to stage attacks on targets inside Turkey. Ankara blames the PKK for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, mostly Kurds, since the group began its armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984 and Turkish President Abdullah Gul called on Friday for the PKK to disarm. Turkish warplanes and artillery have been bombing and shelling PKK positions periodically over several months, helped by intelligence provided by U.S. forces in Iraq. On Feb. 21, the military launched a large-scale ground incursion, sending thousands of troops into the remote Zap Valley against the PKK. Turkey's General Staff says 240 rebels were killed in the campaign, along with 27 of its own men. Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was scheduled to host a lunch for Talabani at his official residence on Saturday. (Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
A patrol member from a local citizen's group marches with demonstrators chanting slogans during a protest in Baghdad's Adhamiya district March 3, 2008. Hundreds took to the streets in Adhamiya district ...
