Iraq urged Turkey not to send troops across the border to fight rebel Kurds, dispatching its vice president to Ankara on Tuesday and calling for “a diplomatic solution” to tensions that have sent oil prices soaring.
Tareq al-Hashemi, one of two Iraqi vice presidents, was scheduled to meet Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other senior officials.

The Turkish Parliament was expected to approve a motion Wednesday allowing the government to order a cross-border attack over the next year.

“The passage of the motion in Parliament does not mean that an operation will be carried out at once,” Erdogan said on Tuesday. “Turkey would act with common sense and determination when necessary and when the time is ripe.” Erdogan said any action would only target the rebels and Turkey would respect Iraq’s territorial integrity. Ali al-Dabbagh, the spokesman for Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said the government would not tolerate violence from the separatist rebels but he urged the Turks to “seek a diplomatic solution and not a military one in dealing with the terrorist threats ”.

Washington has urged NATO-ally Turkey not to enter Iraq, fearing that unilateral Turkish military action could destabilize the autonomous Kurdish region in the north which is one of the country’s few relatively stable areas. The Kurds are a longtime US ally.

An offensive could also undermine Turkey’s relations with the European Union, which has pushed Turkey to treat its minority Kurds better.

But Turkey says some EU tolerate the activities of PKK sympathisers and is frustrated with the perceived lack of US support in the fight against the PKK.