BAGHDAD (AFP) -- Iraq, Turkey and the U.S. agreed Wednesday to form a joint committee to combat the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, a guerilla movement based along the mountainous Iraq-Turkey border.

The committee will "track the threat represented by the Kurdish Workers' Party to the security and the stability of Turkey and Iraq," Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.

It will also "enact forceful measures to stop all activities undertaken by this organization inside Iraqi territory or in any region adjacent to the Turkish-Iraqi border," Dabbagh added.

The announcement followed a meeting to discuss the plan between U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, visiting Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The rebels have repeatedly attacked Turkey from their mountain hideouts in Iraq while Turkey has shelled suspected PKK bases across the border in a conflict that has troubled relations between the two states.

Last month Turkey's parliament extended by one year the government's mandate to strike the PKK in northern Iraq, where Turkish officials estimate about 2,000 fighters are hiding in the mountains.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara and much of the international community, took up arms for self-rule in Turkey's Kurdish-majority southeast in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 44,000 lives.

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