Turkish military planes have scoured the Iraqi border for Kurdish rebel camps, after diplomatic talks in Ankara to avert a major cross-border operation into northern Iraq failed.

A high-level Iraqi delegation met with Turkish officials in Ankara on Friday to try to defuse tensions over Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq.

Thirty Kurdish rebels allegedly preparing to attack a military unit near the border with Iraq were killed by Turkish troops.

Turkey is "losing patience" with Baghdad over Kurd separatists in northern Iraq, President Abdullah Gul said, ahead of talks with an Iraqi delegation seeking to avert a Turkish strike against the rebels.

Turkish officials say the military has been targeting Kurdish rebel positions inside northern Iraq since a rebel ambush near the border Sunday that killed 12 Turkish soldiers.

Turkey's foreign minister, Ali Babacan, has rejected a ceasefire offered by Kurdish rebels of the Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK, in northern Iraq. He met with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad Tuesday to press them to crack down on the rebels which Ankara says are staging attacks inside Turkey.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayipp Erdogan says his government cannot wait forever for neighboring Iraq to deal with rebels of the Kurdistan Workers' Party who are using northern Iraq as a safe haven from which to launch attacks against Turkey.

The United States and Britain made a joint call late Monday for Iraq to take immediate steps to halt cross-border attacks by Iraqi-based Kurdish PKK militants into Turkey. The issue dominated a Washington meeting between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Turkey's General Staff said on Sunday that the army had killed 32 Kurdish rebels while 12 Turkish soldiers had been killed and another 16 wounded in clashes near the border with Iraq.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said he believed there was no chance of a large-scale Turkish military strike against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq.

Iraq's Kurds have vowed to fight off any attack on their region, as pressure mounts on the Iraqi and US administrations to act against Kurdish rebels and stave off a threatened Turkish incursion.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan put forward two conditions on Friday that could prevent Ankara from launching a military strike against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq.