Iraqi Kurdistan PM sees no threat from Turkey

DUBAI, June 3 (Reuters) - The prime minister of Iraq's Kurdistan region said on Tuesday he saw no threat from Turkey, which regularly strikes Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq, and was optimistic about future ties.

The Turkish military has regularly attacked Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebel positions this year in the mountains of northern Iraq, where several thousand militants are believed to be holed up. "We are optimistic on future relations with Turkey, which is the major trade partner with Kurdistan," Nechirvan Barzani told a news conference in Dubai. "We don't feel any threat."

The Turkish military launched a major ground offensive across the border in February signalling a new phase in the offensive against the PKK, which took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984 with the aimed of establishing an ethnic homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.

Turkey is concerned that the emergence of Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdistan Regional Government could encourage separatists in its southeast. However, it recognised that increased trade could help its southeastern economy and alleviate the poverty that has fed the rebellion there.

The EU and the United States are keen for NATO-member Turkey, which says it is defending itself against a terrorist organisation, to keep its attacks in northern Iraq limited to avoid destabilising Iraq and the wider region.

(Reporing by John Irish, Writing by Lin Noueihed)