Iraq, Turkey and the United States agreed Wednesday to form a joint committee to combat the Kurdistan Workers` Party (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 organisation 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 US Ambassador Ryan Crocker, visiting Turkish Interior Minister Besir Atalay and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

The Marxist 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.