Ankara - Three Turkish soldiers and four Kurdish separatists were killed Wednesday in two separate clashes in eastern and south- eastern Turkey, Turkish media reported Thursday.

In the first clash in the Lice region of Diyarbakir province, two soldiers and four Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) rebels were killed and four soldiers wounded.

An army major was killed and five wounded in the second clash in the eastern Turkish province of Agri.

Ankara blames the separatist PKK for the deaths of more than 35,000 people since the early 1980s when the PKK began its fight for independence or autonomy for the mainly Kurdish-populated south-east of Turkey.

Baghdad - Iraq and Turkey agreed on Wednesday to set up a joint committee to combat Kurdish separatists in northern Iraq, Iraqi officials said.

Turkey has launched raids this year inside Iraqi territory to attack the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), which it calls a terrorist organization.

Turkey and Iraq would take "strong measures" to stop the PKK, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabagh said in a press statement, without giving details.

A US delegation also attended the meeting, according to the statement. The US has expressed concern that Turkish raids inside Iraq could further destabilize the country.

Singapore  - A Turkish national was slapped a 656 US dollar fine for spreading the word that a plane getting ready to take off from Singapore's Changi Airport would blow up, the Straits Times reported Tuesday.

Ismet Nurcin, 30, was also jailed for a month by a Community Court on another charge of using criminal force on an airport auxiliary police officer in the transit lounge of the airport's Terminal 1 on August 29.

Erfurt, Germany - Germany's Green Party on Saturday elected Cem Oezdemir as one of its co-leaders, the first time one of Germany's major parties has elevated a child of Turkish immigrants to such a high position.

Oezdemir received 79.2 per cent of the vote at a party congress. He will co-lead the party with incumbent Claudia Roth, who was re- elected with 82.7 per cent of the vote. The Greens traditionally have two leaders, one male, one female.

New Delhi, Nov. 14 : Turkey''''s Ambassador to India, Levent Bilman, on Friday cautioned United States President-elect Barrack Obama against a hurried withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

Speaking on "India and Turkey: Past and Emerging Relations" at the Observer Research Foundation on the eve of the visit of the Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to India, Ambassador Bilman said a hurried and poorly thought out withdrawals by the US would lead to a power vacuum in the region.

Hamburg - Germany cancelled the licences of two Turkish-language Islamic television stations Thursday, eight weeks after senior executives were sent to jail for embezzlement.

The stations, Kanal 7 INT and TVT, were linked to the Deniz Feneri charity, which collected alms for the poor from devout Muslims living in western Europe.