Monday, July 24 2006 12:52 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New York: Trouble is reportedly brewing on the Iraq-Turkey border with many Turkish leaders, encouraged by Israeli action against Hezbollah in Lebanon, are calling for cross border tactical strikes against separatist Kurds, suspected to have killed 15 Turkish soldiers last week.

US President George Bush, fearing yet another escalation of the Middle East violence, urged Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to hold off, a media report said.

"The message was unilateral actions isn't going to be helpful. The President asked for patience," Newsweek quoted a US official as saying while giving account of a 15-minute conservation the leaders had.

As a result, the news magazine says, Turkish forces are holding fast for now but the patience is bound to be challenged probably sooner than later.

Domestic political pressures, the magazine says, are building in Turkey to take a leaf from Israel's book and hit back at the guerrillas of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK. Since the beginning of the year, the magazine says, attacks on Turkish military garrisons and police stations have escalated across the country's southeast, along with random shootings, bombings and protests with many of them, authorities suspect, organized in Iraq.

Already the Turkish military has laid detailed plans for possible helicopter-and-commando assaults, Newsweek says quoting government sources.

Meanwhile, Ankara's frustration with Washington has grown palpable, it says. For all the Bush administration's repeated promises to crack down on the PKK, little if anything has happened.