Foreign Minister Abdullah Gül, in his three days of talks in Washington, is facing the monumental task of winning the U.S. administration's concrete backing on the fight against the terrorist Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) presence in northern Iraq and the future status of Iraq's oil-rich, multi-ethnic city of Kirkuk, and persuading a Democratic majority leadership in the House of Representatives to stop the passage of an Armenian genocide resolution.

Gül was holding separate talks with Vice President Dick Cheney and the president's National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley late Monday night, Turkish time, when the Turkish Daily News went to press. Today, he is meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at a luncheon, and tomorrow will come together with key Democratic lawmakers in Congress.

Gül's visit comes at a critical time when Turkey's public is increasingly impatient over U.S. lack of action against the PKK that attacks Turkish targets from bases in neighboring northern Iraq.

Also, as President George W. Bush ordered the deployment of an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq in a last-ditch effort to boost security, a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate late last week drew a bleak picture over the war-torn country's future, including the possibility of a Turkish-Iraqi Kurdish conflict over Kirkuk and an extended Kurdish autonomy.

"It will be tough talks at a critical time," one Turkish diplomat admitted.

An extremely urgent issue is the efforts by lawmakers to obtain congressional recognition of what the Armenians view as the "Armenian genocide."

A resolution introduced last week in the House of Representatives, Congress' lower house, calls on the administration and Congress to classify World War I-era killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as genocide.

Bush's administration opposes the measure, but the new Democratic leadership in Congress is sympathetic to the Armenian cause. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said before last November's congressional elections that she would back efforts for passage of Armenian resolutions.

Gül is scheduled to meet tomorrow with House Democratic Majority leader Steny Hoyer, another backer of the genocide recognition campaign, Tom Lantos, Democratic chairman of the influential House Foreign Affairs Committee, and other committee members in an effort to convince them on the "seriously negative'" consequences of the resolution's passage, diplomats said.

The Armenian resolution will first go to Lantos' committee for discussions and a vote, probably in March. In the very likely event of approval there, it would then reach the full House floor. At that point it will be up to Pelosi whether or not to hold a vote.

Gül will also have talks with leading Democratic lawmaker John Murtha, a close aide to Pelosi. "The Turkish effort is aimed at preventing a full floor vote at the House because the resolution is certain to win enough 'aye' votes in any congressional platform,� said one analyst in Washington.

Turkey's successive governments have warned the United States that congressional recognition of genocide claims will lead to a review of the entire U.S.-Turkish relationship.

On the PKK threat, Gül will urge his U.S. counterparts in the administration to eventually agree to effective measures against the terrorist group in northern Iraq.

Matt Bryza, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, last week admitted that the United States should soon take concrete steps against the PKK, otherwise Washington would lose its credibility in the eyes of the Turkish people.

But Washington has so far given no indication it will take drastic action against the PKK. Ankara warns that its army might intervene militarily to root out the PKK bases in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, if the terrorists are allowed to continue to operate there freely.

On the issue of Kirkuk, Gül will urge the Bush administration to review its position on a planned referendum later this year on the city's status.

Seeking to make Kirkuk their region's capital, Iraqi Kurds insist on holding the referendum on time. Noting that in recent years hundreds of thousands of Kurds have flocked into Kirkuk, which sits on 40 percent of Iraq's oil, to alter the city's population structure before the referendum, Turkey calls for an indefinite delay for the census and adoption of a special status for the area.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey last month urged Iraq's government to go ahead with this year's referendum process, but Bryza said, "Will it, who knows?"

Official U.S. reports emphasize Turkey's interest in northern Iraq. "Kurdish moves to control Kirkuk and strengthen autonomy could prompt Turkey to launch a military incursion," the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate said in its unclassified summary. "Turkey does not want Iraq to disintegrate and is determined to eliminate the safe haven in northern Iraq of the [PKK]," it said.

ÜMİT ENGİNSOY

WASHINGTON - Turkish Daily News