BONN -- Turkey's Foreign Minister Erdal Inonu, on the start of a tour of Western capitals designed to counter growing criticism of his country's military assault on rebel Kurds in Iraq, told Germany on Monday that Ankara would recall its troops as quickly as possible.


Inonu gave no target date for a pullout -- and his host German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel, urging a political deal with the Kurds, said it should be "tomorrow, if possible" to avoid straining their relations.


The Turkish minister defended Ankara's decision to send 35,000 soldiers across the border to wipe out Kurdistan Workers' Party or PKK guerrilla bases in northern Iraq.


"The press is reporting things as if we were going to stay months or years, that Turkey was going to occupy this area. No. This is not true," he told a joint news conference with Kinkel.


"Our goal is and was from the beginning to take out PKK arms depots and to create a security situation in which the PKK cannot attack our country from there. ... When we accomplish this objective, our soldiers will immediately return to Turkey."


Kinkel said Germany, which has been one of the offensive's most vocal critics, would wait and see what happens in northern Iraq before deciding whether to resume military assistance for Turkey that it froze last week.


"We want to maintain good relations with Turkey, but we also have to say plainly and clearly that we think the operation in Iraq must end as quickly as possible, tomorrow if possible, so our ties will not be strained," he said.


Inonu repeatedly stressed that Turkey only sought to protect itself against PKK raids by thrusting into northern Iraq, where he said Kurd rebels were able to operate with impunity from what was a legal and political no man's land.


Any other country would have done the same, he said.


"Imagine if there were a no man's land in Europe where only terrorists held sway," he said. "Months pass and the terrorists use it as a base to attack villages and kill people. Can you imagine that Europe would just look on? Would Europe say that is not our territory and we cannot go in?"


Kinkel again called on Turkey to seek a political solution to its conflict with the Kurds, suggesting it could offer them some form of cultural autonomy but stopping short of urging any step that would infringe on Turkey's territorial integrity.


The meeting was Inonu's first stop on a diplomatic drive to persuade Turkey's allies it was on the right path. In office barely a week, Inonu travels next to Washington and Paris.


Ankara has been especially critical of Bonn for freezing credits to help finance construction of two frigates and for suspending a shipment of military engineering equipment. The moves marked disloyalty by a NATO ally, Turkey has charged.


Bonn has said it will still back a customs union treaty between Turkey and the European Union. But, Kinkel said, this had become "significantly more difficult."