The United States has promised to strengthen its stance against Kurdish guerrillas in an attempt to stave off Turkish military intervention in northern Iraq that could destabilise the region.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, visiting Ankara amid growing anti-US sentiment among Turks, called the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) a "common enemy." But she did not spell out what steps Washington was contemplating.
"We all need to redouble our efforts and the United States is committed to redoubling our efforts," she told a news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan.
Mr Babacan clearly expressed Turkish frustration at the lack of action so far. "This is where the words end and action needs to start," he said.
Ankara says numerous pledges by US and Iraqi authorities have failed to materialise and it has warned that unless immediate action is taken Turkey will launch a major cross-border operation to crack down on PKK guerrillas using northern Iraq as a base to carry out deadly attacks in Turkey.
Turkey, a Nato member with the alliance's second-biggest army, has sent up to 100,000 troops to the Iraqi border, backed by tanks, artillery and aircraft. But Iraq and the US have urged Ankara to refrain from a major operation in an area that has so far been spared the worst of the violence in Iraq.
"No one should doubt the commitment of the United States to this issue ... We have a common enemy and we need a common approach," Ms Rice said.
She also held talks with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who is going to Washington next week for discussions with President George W. Bush on how to tackle an estimated 3,000 guerrillas operating freely in northern Iraq.
Ms Rice said measures on how to deal with the PKK would be discussed at a meeting between herself and ministers from Turkey and Iraq on the sidelines of an Iraq neighbours' conference in Istanbul on Saturday.
Turkish-US ties are at a low following a resolution passed by a US congressional committee last month that called the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a genocide. Rice hopes to heal any rifts from that.
Mr Babacan said Ms Rice's visit to one of the main supply routes for US troops in Iraq, marked the start of closer cooperation between the Nato allies in combating the threat from the PKK.
Mr Erdogan is under pressure to act as the military and much of public opinion doubt Washington or Baghdad will crack down on the PKK; nor do they expect firm action from Masoud Barzani, the head of the Kurdish semi-autonomous region of northern Iraq.
"The subject on our agenda is an operation, not a war. We hope that this operation will not be necessary," Mr Erdogan said in a speech to officials from his ruling centre-right AK Party.