(Adds U.S. embassy official, more background)

ANKARA, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The head of Turkey's military General Staff said it had U.S. approval for Turkish air strikes on Sunday against Kurdish PKK rebel targets in northern Iraq.

"America last night opened Iraqi airspace to us. By opening Iraqi airspace to us last night America gave its approval to the operation," the Anatolian state news agency quoted General Yasar Buyukanit as saying.

Iraqi officials said one woman was killed and hundreds of people were forced to flee their homes because of the Turkish aerial bombardment in the early hours of Sunday. Buyukanit denied civilian targets were hit in the air strikes.

A U.S. embassy official, asked to comment on Buyukanit's remarks, said: "We have not approved any decision. It is not for us to approve. However, we were informed before the event (the air strikes)."

Ankara says it has the right under international law to hit Kurdish guerrillas of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who use mainly Kurdish northern Iraq as a base from which to stage attacks on targets inside Turkey.

Turkey has massed up to 100,000 troops, backed up by warplanes, artillery and tanks, near its mountainous border with Iraq and has staged a number of cross-border operations since parliament gave the military the authorisation to do so.

After U.S. President George W. Bush and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan held talks last month in the White House, the U.S. military has started sharing intelligence with its NATO ally on PKK movements in Iraq.

(Reporting by Gareth Jones; editing by Myra MacDonald)

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