WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (Xinhua) -- The United States expressed on Tuesday its willingness to provide Turkey with intelligence to help its troops strike Kurdish rebels based in Iraq.

    "Actionable intelligence is something that we can provide," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters. She declined to give more details about the offer.

    Perino made the remarks after President George W. Bush told his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul by telephone on Monday that the United States supports Turkey's efforts to counter deadly attacks by the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK).

    Also on Tuesday, U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that diplomatic efforts to ease tensions on Turkey's border with Iraq are continuing.

    "We're working to resolve diplomatically what is a very difficult problem," McCormack said, reiterating: "We do not believe that unilateral Turkish actions are the way to resolve this."

    There is no official reports about concrete U.S.-Turkey cooperation on suppressing Kurdish rebels, but the Chicago Tribune reported Tuesday the U.S. military has considered launching cruise missile against PKK targets, but airstrikes using manned aircraft were an easier option, one unidentified official told the Tribune.

    Turkey has vowed to take all necessary measures against the Kurdish rebels, including a possible incursion into northern Iraq after dozens of Turkish soldiers were recently killed by PKK militants.

    The PKK, listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, launched an armed campaign for an ethnic homeland in the mainly Kurdish southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking decades of strife that has claimed more than 30,000 lives.