The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) "is losing blood at the moment ... We believe measures aimed at shortening the struggle against terrorism will yield more effective results now," General Basbug said during his annual speech at the war academy here.

The PKK -- which took up arms against Ankara in 1984 for self-rule in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast -- had problems in its command structure and was suffering from low morale with many members fleeing, Basbug argued.

"There are problems among the leaders of the organisation. The morale of the organisation is low.

"The number of new recruits are nowhere near the level desired by the organisation. The organisation continues to suffer defections."

Neighbouring northern Iraq, where the rebels keep rear bases, "has ceased being a safe zone" for the organisation, he added.

Measures taken by European countries have hit the rebel's financial resources and joint efforts with Iraq and the United States to flush the rebels out of northern Iraq are expected to produce more effective results in the coming days, Basbug said.

"The (Turkish) state must take measures to curb the organisation's recruitments," the general said.

"The state must make some amendments for better implementation of existing legal arrangements to ensure the rebels quit the organisation," he added.

The Turkish penal code has for the past few years allowed for outright pardons and reduced sentences for repentant militants, but PKK leaders have been excluded from the measure.

Turkey has faced calls both at home and abroad to issue a general amnesty for the rebels, but Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last month said his government had no such plan.

Basbug also urged Ankara to make sure that its Kurdish citizens benefit from "equal opportunities" and strive to change the perception among Kurds that "they are being victimised".

"This is the state's primary duty," he said.

The 24-year conflict -- which, Basbug said, has left about 45,000 dead -- has driven a wedge between Ankara and its Kurdish community, estimated to number around 12 million.

Turkey has in recent years undertaken a series of measures to alleviate rampant poverty in the Kurdish-majority regions and expand Kurdish cultural freedoms.

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Bishkek (AFP) March 5, 2009
Kyrgyzstan is ready to talk to the United States about keeping open an airbase used to support operations in Afghanistan, President Kurmanbek Bakiyev was quoted on Thursday as saying.