The Turkish government asked the country's parliament on Monday for a one-year authorization to conduct military operations in northern Iraq to attack Kurdish separatist guerrillas, BBC reported.

"It is impossible to speak for certain on a possible cross-border operation if the parliament approves it," General Ergin Saygun, deputy chief of the Turkish General Staff, told reporters, according to the Anatolian news agency.

"We will look at the season and go over our needs before launching a military operation," he added in an attemot tio downplay the prospects of an immediate attack.

Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said "our hope is that we will not have to use this motion."

But he added: "The reality that everyone knows is that this terrorist organization, which has bases in the north of Iraq, is attacking the territorial integrity of Turkey and its citizens.

"The motion targets PKK alone and is designed to prevent further bloodshed," Cicek said after a Council of Ministers meeting yesterday, using the abbreviation for the Kurdistan Workers' Party.

The parliament is widely expected to approve the authorization later this week.
Oil prices soared to a new high of just over USD 86 a barrel on Monday, largely on fears that Turkish military action could disrupt supplies as winter nears, industry analysts said.

The Turkish government sought the legislative authorization following a spate of attacks that have killed 30 soldiers, police officers, and civilians in the past two weeks.

There is also growing frustration that the United States and Iraq have done little to curb separatist activities in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq.

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