Turkey is considering economic sanctions against Kurd groups which are backing the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels based in northern Iraq.

Turkey's powerful National Security Council (MGK) made the suggestion in a statement issued late Wednesday after a six-hour meeting of the country's powerful security body.

"It has been decided to recommend to the government that they take economic measures against the Kurds who support, directly or indirectly, the separatist organization (PKK)," said the statement.

However, the MGK statement did not say what measures should be taken or which groups would be targeted.

Ankara has recently strongly criticized the Kurdish regional administration in northern Iraq for failing to crack down on PKK rebels.

Media reports said earlier on Wednesday that Turkey's military and civilian leaders held a MGK meeting to discuss the scope and duration of a possible incursion into northern Iraq, as they face growing demands at home to stage the offensive against PKK.

The Turkish parliament approved on October 17 a government motion backing a cross-border operation into northern Iraq for pursuing PKK militants, straining the relations between the two neighboring countries.

The PKK, which has been fighting more than 20 years for an independent Kurdish country in southern Turkey, further fueled the tension on Sunday by killing 12 Turkish soldiers in a deadly ambush.

Turkey has been blaming the Iraqi government for its failure in checking the PKK fighters who use Iraq's northern Kurdish region as a launching pad for attacks against Turkish troops.

(Xinhua News Agency October 25, 2007)