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ANKARA, March 4 (Reuters) - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani will visit Ankara on Friday, his first visit as head of state, an official at Turkey's presidential palace said on Tuesday.

The visit comes one week after Turkish troops withdrew from northern Iraq after a major eight-day ground offensive against Kurdish PKK rebels who use the mountainous region as a base from which to stage attacks on Turkey.

"President Talabani will make a three-day official visit to Turkey starting on Friday," the official told Reuters. No further details were immediately available.

Turkey's land operation strained relations between Ankara and Baghdad, already long clouded by Turkish accusations that Iraq is not doing enough to tackle the PKK rebels operating on its territory.

The central Baghdad government has little sway in semi-autonomous, mainly Kurdish northern Iraq. Ankara fears the Iraqi Kurds are plotting to set up their own state, a move which could reignite separatism among Turkey's own restive Kurds.

Amid such concerns, Turkey's former president, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, had refused to invite Talabani to Ankara despite booming economic and trade ties. Talabani himself is a Kurd.

Turkey's current president, Abdullah Gul, is a former foreign minister keen to promote Turkish interests in the Middle East and to help balance Iran's growing influence in Iraq.

Talabani hosted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for historic talks in Baghdad on Monday. Ahmadinejad used the occasion to tell the United States to quit Iraq and the region.

Washington provided intelligence to Turkish troops during their ground offensive in northern Iraq. Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States, withdrew its troops a day after President George W. Bush urged Ankara to keep the campaign short.

Turkey blames the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) for the deaths of nearly 40,000 people since the group began its armed struggle for an ethnic homeland in southeast Turkey in 1984.

The United States and the European Union, like Turkey, classify the PKK as a terrorist organisation. (Reporting by Zerin Elci; Writing by Gareth Jones; Editing by Caroline Drees)

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