Nov. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will attack bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq ``soon,'' according to a senior lawmaker of his ruling Justice and Development Party.

Turkey is gathering intelligence on the whereabouts of PKK positions in northern Iraq before starting the operation, Erdogan told party officials in Ankara late yesterday after talks with Ergin Saygun, deputy head of the Turkish military, according to a lawmaker who attended the meeting and requested anonymity.

The Turkish government is threatening to send soldiers over the border after attacks by the PKK during the past six weeks killed almost 50 people in southeastern Turkey. The U.S. has cautioned Turkey against a full-scale military incursion into the Kurdish-controlled region, a relatively calm area of Iraq.

Four Turkish soldiers were killed in fighting with the PKK near the border early today, the army said on its Web site. Turkish jets bombed villages in northern Iraq early today, causing no casualties, Agence France-Presse reported.

The autonomy-seeking PKK has fought the Turkish army since 1984 at the cost of almost 40,000 lives. The group is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the European Union.

`Actionable Intelligence'

The PKK is the common enemy of the U.S. and Turkey, President George W. Bush said after meeting Erdogan at the White House on Nov. 6. The U.S. government will provide ``actionable intelligence'' to help the Turkish military stop the group from mounting attacks in Turkey, Bush added.

Turkey has amassed more than 80,000 soldiers in the mountainous border region in preparation for a possible incursion to attack about 3,000 PKK fighters holed up in northern Iraq.

Turkish jets bombed an unused police post in the Iraqi Kurdish enclave today on suspicion that it is being used by the PKK as a staging post for attacks on Turkey, the CNN Turk television reported on its Web site.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters today that ``we are providing intelligence -- lots of it'' to the Turkish military about the PKK.

``We'd like to provide `actionable' intelligence, but that is a much higher standard that is tougher to come by,'' said Morrell, referring to the type of data that can be used almost immediately to launch a military strike.

Bryan Whitman, another spokesman, said the U.S. was working with Turkish officials ``to have the mechanisms to pass information in an efficient way,'' primarily through the U.S. European Command.

To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Bentley in Ankara, Turkey at mbentley3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 13, 2007 16:00 EST