In an effort to avert an armed conflict between two of its closest allies, the US promised last night to help stop Kurdish guerrillas operating in northern Iraq.

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, told her Turkish hosts that Washington regarded the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as an enemy and was prepared to support Turkey in its looming confrontation with the separatist guerrillas.

“We all need to redouble our efforts and the United States is committed to redoubling our efforts,” Dr Rice said at a joint press conference in Ankara with Ali Babacan, the Turkish Foreign Minister.

“No one should doubt the commitment of the United States to this issue,” she added. “We have a common enemy and we need a common approach.

Mr Babacan expressed Turkish frustration at the lack of action so far against PKK. “This is where the words end and action needs to start,” he said. He was unlikely to have been reassured by Dr Rice’s failure to spell out what Washington might do to stop the PKK using northern Iraq as a springboard for attacks on Turkey.

The Turkish Government says numerous pledges by US and Iraqi authorities have failed to materialise and has warned that unless immediate action is taken Turkish troops will cross the border to root out the estimated 3,000 PKK guerrillas.

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 Baghdad and Washington 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.

Nearly 40,000 people have been killed since the PKK took up its armed struggle for Kurdish self-rule in southeast Turkey in 1984.

Dr Rice said 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 today.

Before Dr Rice arrived in Ankara Turks had one angry message for her.

“She shouldn’t waste her breath – if they can’t do anything about the PKK they should just get out of the way!” said Mehmet Dogan, 19, a student. “They have been killing our people, they have been kidnapping our soldiers. Something has to be done and we will certainly not listen to a country that came all that way to make a mess of Iraq because of oil.”

Mr Dogan represents a significant strain of opinion: that Turkey has every right to act against the PKK, which has recently killed about thirty Turkish soldiers in attacks launched from across the border in Iraq.

Dr Rice’s visit was preceded by small-scale protests in Ankara, where demonstrators threw darts at her picture and complained that she was coming not to atone for the death of Turkish soldiers but to engage in shoddy bargaining.

Turkish anger against the US has been inflamed by official statements that the latest wave of attacks by the PKK, which had been dormant for several years, involved American weapons gleaned from the chaos of post-invasion Iraq. Turkish anti-Americanism is at a record high because of the common perception that Washington has failed to clamp down on the PKK in an area now under its control.

“Who the hell is America to tell us what to do? I think Bush and Rice should first start collecting up all the American weapons and mobile telephones they gave to the PKK before coming and lecturing us,” said Mehmet Taner, 42, an accountant. “It’s time to stop grovelling to so-called allies and go in and finish the job.”

Thousands of people have been taking to the streets, calling for the Government to act against the PKK. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister, is under considerable pressure to order an incursion into Iraq – a move that America says could destabilise the entire region.

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