An Iraq neighbours' conference that is to concentrate on how to support the Baghdad administration begins in Istanbul on Friday but looks set to be overshadowed by the continuing threat that Turkey will launch a large-scale incursion into northern Iraq to deal with Kurdish rebels who use the mountainous terrain as a base from which to launch attacks on Turkey proper.

Speaking in Baghdad on Wednesday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said he hoped that the conference's main agenda would not get side-lined and that it would concentrate on supporting Iraq.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan on Thursday said that Turkey had no plan to allow the crisis to take over the talks.

"Our attitudes on Iraq in general and on the terrorist organization are two separate issues," Babacan told reporters.

The foreign minister said that one of the main themes of the talks would be the support that Turkey and its neighbours have for the territorial integrity of Iraq.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be attending the conference in Istanbul that will bring together foreign ministers of Iraq's neighbours, the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and G8 nations.

The conference will be the second such meeting to discuss the overall situation in Iraq. The first was held in May in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Iraq's internal problems are the major item on the agenda, but with Turkish troops massed on the border with Iraq it is clear that Turkey's threat to launch an incursion will be a major talking point.

Turkey has demanded that Iraq take direct action to end Kurdish Worker's Party (PKK) activities in northern Iraq.

In the past month around 100 people have been killed inside Turkey in fighting between PKK rebels and Turkish soldiers. Another eight soldiers have been taken hostage by the PKK.

More than 32,000 people have been killed since the PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, launched its fight for independence or autonomy for the mainly Kurdish-populated south-east.

Since Saddam Hussein's army was forced out of Iraq following the 1990 Gulf War, the PKK has used the mountainous north as a base.

The Turkish military estimates there are around 3,500 PKK guerrillas in northern Iraq.

Turkey accuses the autonomous Kurdish regional government in northern Iraq of at least refusing to act against the PKK.

On Thursday, Babacan said the authorities in northern Iraq had made statements of "support and sympathy" for the PKK.

Rice was due to hold meetings in Ankara on Friday before the Istanbul conference aimed at trying to convince Turkey to hold off from launching an incursion that Washington fears could destabilize northern Iraq, the only relatively calm region in Iraq.

Babacan said on Friday that the Iraqi government needs to take concrete steps to close down the PKK in northern Iraq, a message he will convey to Rice during their meetings and which Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will demand of US President George Bush when they meet in Washington on November 5.

The Istanbul conference wraps up on Saturday.