ATHENS, July 6, 2008 (AFP) - Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Sunday expressed support for the Turkish government, which is threatened by secular and nationalist opponents.

In an interview with the Greek newspaper Eleftherotypia, Talabani said the power struggle between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and secularist forces, led by the army, is 'worrying' for Iraq and a ban on the AKP would be 'a step backwards.'

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's AKP has been forced to defend itself in the Constitutional Court against charges that it had sought to undermine the secular system and should be banned.

The case is the latest episode in a bitter struggle between secularist forces and the AKP, which won a decisive re-election victory last year despite a divisive campaign that focused on the party's alleged Islamist leanings.

Talabani expressed hope that if the party is banned, its leaders will 'launch a new party and hang on to their majority.'

Talabani, an Iraqi Kurd, stressed that Baghdad's 'good relations' with the Turkish government had not been affected by Turkish raids on Kurdish guerrillas in northern Iraq.

Turkey has launched several air and land attacks on Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) positions since December.

'We understand who is responsible for these attacks,' Talabani said.

But he stressed his opposition to the PKK using Iraq as a base.

'We have often appealed for our Kurdish brothers in Turkey to stop the war and join the political struggle. If they don't do it, we ask them to leave Iraq ... if they refuse to listen to us, they are giving a pretext to certain Turkish circles,' he said.

The PKK -- branded a terrorist group by Turkey, the European Union and the United States -- has been fighting since 1984 for an independent Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey.

Talabani gave the interview while in Athens last week for a meeting of the Socialist International.