Senior military and government officials began talks Sunday evening at the presidential palace in Ankara to consider a military strike against Kurdish rebel bases in Iraq after a deadly ambush on Turkish soldiers.

The meeting under President Abdullah Gul followed clashes earlier in the day near the Iraqi border in southeast Turkey, prompted by an attack on a Turkish military patrol.

Turkish soldiers patrol on a road near the Iraqi border in southeastern Turkey on Saturday.
(Associated Press)

Turkish artillery units shelled rebel positions in northern Iraq in retaliation for an ambush that killed at least 12 soldiers and injured 16 others.

The Turkish military said its troops, backed by helicopter gunships, killed 32 rebels belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Rebels with the separatist group took eight soldiers hostage during their attack, according to the pro-PKK Firat news agency.

However, Turkish Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul denied any soldiers had been kidnapped.

The fighting was expected to increase pressure on the Turkish government to stage attacks against guerrilla camps in Iraq.

On Wednesday, Turkey's parliament voted to authorize cross-border military raids over the next year targeting PKK rebels.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Sunday urged the PKK to stop its attacks amid fears a Turkish incursion would destabilize the relatively peaceful autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq.

"We have appealed to the PKK to desist fighting and to transform themselves from military organizations into civilian and political ones," Talabani said. "But if they insist on the continuation of fighting, they should leave Kurdistan, Iraq, and not create problems here."

Talabani's call on the rebels to lay down their arms or get out of Iraq is the strongest indication to date of his frustration with the rebels' actions and his wish to distance himself, as well as Iraq's Kurds, from the rebels.

Iraq's national parliament, meanwhile, voted unanimously Sunday to adopt a resolution rejecting the use of force by Turkey to settle the border crisis and calling on the PKK guerrillas to leave Iraq.

"I feel sorry about today's incident," Talabani said, alluding to Sunday's clashes. "I regret the shedding of blood, whether it is Turkish or Kurdish," he said, adding that he will meet Tuesday with Turkey's foreign minister, Ali Babacan.

He did not say where the meeting would take place.

With files from the Associated Press