ANKARA, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Abdullah Gul said his country would do everything in its power to eradicate the banned Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported on Friday.

    "Turkey will go on its democratic moves in a determined way, and at the same time it will do everything in its power to eradicate the outlawed PKK," Gul was quoted as saying on Thursday.

    "There is not even a single reason that could justify terrorism, and it was impossible to tolerate terrorism," he said.

    Mentioning the reason of rise in terrorist attacks of the PKK from time to time, Gul said the organization was availing itself of the neighboring country.

    "The PKK has the opportunity to use the neighboring Iraq as a logistic base due to the authority vacuum in that country," Gul said, adding that the most important thing is to eradicate terrorism, or to minimize it.

    "To reach that goal, we have to test every possible means, including military operations," he said.

    The president added the most effective way is to isolate the PKK, which could be done by democracy and cooperation with Iraq inanti-terrorism.

    Gul is scheduled to pay a visit to the Iraqi capital of Baghdadin January, said the report.

    The PKK took up arms in 1984 to create an ethnic homeland in southeastern Turkey. Some 40,000 people have been killed in the over-two-decade conflict.

    The Turkish forces, which have got the renewed mandate to launch cross-border operations against the rebels, struck PKK targets in northern Iraq last week.