Jailed PKK leader says Turkey must open door to talks

ARBIL, Iraq - The jailed leader of the Kurdish PKK rebels said resuming peace talks depended on Turkey if they "open the door" after months of separatist attacks and retaliatory Turkish air strikes on rebel bases hidden in northern Iraq.

Abdullah Ocalan, leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, sent the message though his brother after a meeting in his prison cell on a prison island south of Istanbul, a PKK statement released on Tuesday said.

"At this stage, the key is in the hands of state authorities, not ours. Negotiations will continue and everything could change in the coming process if they open the door," Ocalan said in the statement.

It was the first message in months from Ocalan who remains influential in the PKK, which took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 in a fight for more Kurdish autonomy. More than 40,000 people have died in the conflict.

Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said in August he had lost patience with the PKK and Turkish planes began bombing separatist bases, signalling an end to clandestine talks between the state and Ocalan who was captured in 1999.

Kurdish PKK guerrillas have carried out a wave of attacks in southeastern Turkey in recent months, killing more than 50 Turkish personnel since July. Turkish military have hit PKK bases across the border in Iraq's northern mountains.

A roadside bomb planted by suspected Kurdish rebels killed four policemen and two civilians on Tuesday in southeastern Turkey. The United States, Turkey and the European Union class the PKK as a terrorist group.