U.S. SEES IRAQ AS SOLVING PKK ISSUE

ANKARA [MENL] -- The United States has decided that Iraq would eliminate thepresence of Kurdish insurgents along the border with Turkey. In what appeared to be a change in policy, the Bush administration hasruled out a U.S. military operation against the Kurdish Workers Party innorthern Iraq. For more than a year, the administration assured Turkey thatthe U.S. military would eventually help ensure the removal of an estimated4,000 PKK fighters from the Kandil mountains.