Turkey says it will exhaust diplomatic channels before launching any military strike into northern Iraq to root out Kurdish rebels, who killed at least a dozen Turkish soldiers in fighting over the weekend.
Turkey has built up its forces along the border with Iraq in preparation for an incursion against rebel bases but Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has said he will hold off for a few days to let the United States try to curb the Kurdish separatists.
Washington, in turn, urged the Iraqi government today to act swiftly to stop Kurdish guerrillas from mounting further attacks in Turkey.
"We do not want to see wider military action on the northern border," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said.
Earlier a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, said: "The US is committed to working with the Turks and Iraqis to deal with the PKK terrorist problem."
Washington and Baghdad have been calling on Nato-member Turkey to refrain from a major military push into the largely autonomous Kurdish region, one of the few relatively stable areas of Iraq since the US-led invasion of 2003.
The office of Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd, told Reuters the PKK would announce a ceasefire this evening.
Mr Erdogan is under intense pressure from his powerful military and the public to strike in Iraq against the rebels, who have killed some 40 Turkish soldiers in the past month. Eight are still missing from the latest skirmishes, according to the Turkish military.
After speaking with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday, Mr Erdogan agreed to hold off for a few days and he left for an official visit to Britain today.
Mr Erdogan has been resisting a cross-border operation and his foreign minister, Ali Babacan, was quoted today as saying: "We will try all diplomatic means before carrying out any military operation."
But the decades-long fight against the PKK, which wants an independent homeland in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq, is highly emotive.
The pro-PKK Firat news agency said eight Turkish soldiers had been captured and gave the names of seven men. Turkey has denied any of its soldiers were captured, but confirmed eight of its soldiers were missing after the fighting.
"Turkish armed forces continue to search the region" for the soldiers, Mr Erdogan told reporters. "Clashes continue."