Frankfurt - German prejudices towards Turks, but also Turkish prejudices against Western people, came under scrutiny Saturday at a symposium on the eve of the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Turkey and its literature are special guest at the annual publishing trade show, which begins Wednesday.

"We need to probe all the cliches to figure out to what extent they are true," said Murathan Mungan, a leading Turkish author, in a keynote address beginning the two-day conference among intellectuals of the two nations.

Ankara - The Turkish Air Force continued bombing raids on suspected Kurdish separatist positions in northern Iraq carrying out on Friday night their sixth attack in a week, the General Staff announced on Saturday.

According to a short statement posted its official website, the General Staff said 31 targets just over the Turkish border were hit during the raids on Friday night during the bombing raids.

The statement said the only aim of the raids were Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) targets and that precautions were taken not to harm civilians in the Hakurk region.

The attacks are the sixth since a PKK attack on a military border post last week left 17 soldiers and 23 PKK separatists dead.

Riga/Tallinn - Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves gave his full backing to Turkish membership of the European Union on Friday during a state visit by his Turkish counterpart, Abdullah Gul.

Speaking in the elegant surroundings of Kadriorg Palace in the Estonian capital, Tallinn, Ilves described Turkey as "a firm ally of Europe" and affirmed that Estonia continues to support Turkey's ongoing bid for full EU membership.

Ankara - Turkish war planes backed by artillery on Thursday night conducted attacks on a large group of Kurdish separatists inside northern Iraq, the Turkish military announced on Friday.

A Turkish General Staff spokesman said the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) group were attempting to cross into Turkey where they planned to carry out attacks on Turkish targets. A large number of the PKK group were killed in Thursday night's bombardments, the spokesman said.

The attacks come almost a week after a PKK attack on a military border post left 17 soldiers and 23 PKK separatists dead.

Ankara - The Turkish parliament Wednesday extended for one year a mandate that allows the Turkish military to launch cross- border operations into northern Iraq to hunt down Kurdish separatists, who use the mountainous terrain as a base from which to launch attacks inside Turkey.

The mandate was carried by a clear majority, with 511 deputies voting in favour and only 18 against. The original mandate was due to end October 17. It now runs through October 2009.

Ankara - Three police officers and one civilian were killed and 15 police wounded Wednesday when two unknown attackers fired at a police service bus in the south-eastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir, the NTV private television station reported.

The service bus was carrying police officers from a police school in the city when it was attacked at around 5 pm (1400 GMT). The attackers fled the scene and police launched a large-scale search operation.