Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Eight Turkish soldiers taken prisoner last month by the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, were freed in northern Iraq today, in a step that may reduce the possibility of a Turkish military incursion into the Kurdish enclave.

The Turkish soldiers have now rejoined military units operating from southeast Turkey, the army said in a statement on its Web site. The troops were captured after a clash with PKK fighters on Turkey's border with northern Iraq on Oct. 21, which left 12 Turkish soldiers dead.

Turkey has stationed about 80,000 troops near the Iraqi border and is threatening to strike the PKK's bases in northern Iraq unless the U.S. and Iraq take steps to crush the group. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan meets with U.S. President George W. Bush tomorrow in Washington to discuss measures to deal with about 3,500 PKK fighters in Iraq's north.

The release of the soldiers is a ``symbolic message'' that shows the commitment of the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq to tackle the threat to Turkey's security posed by the PKK, Nechirvan Barzani, prime minister of the enclave, told CNN Turk television in an interview.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani also played a central role in freeing the troops, who were initially handed over to U.S. officials in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, Barzani said.

The U.S. government said last month that Turkey had the right to look for the kidnapped soldiers in northern Iraq after they were seized by the PKK on Oct. 21, echoing U.S. statements made prior to Israeli attacks on targets in Lebanon last year, when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers.

Battling PKK

The military entered northern Iraq several times before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, most notably in 1995 and 1997 when tens of thousands of soldiers battled the PKK in the mountainous region. Turkey has been fighting the PKK since 1984 at the cost of almost 40,000 lives, most of them Kurdish.

Iraq's government will take ``visible measures'' including cutting off the PKK's supply lines and placing members on a ``lock-out list,'' Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said yesterday in Istanbul after talks with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ben Holland in Istanbul at bholland1@bloomberg.net. To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Bentley in Ankara, Turkey on at mbentley3@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 4, 2007 10:57 EST