ANKARA - Turkey's Defence Minister Yasar Guler and his Iraqi counterpart Thabet al-Abbasi discussed possible joint steps on counter-terrorism and border security during talks on Thursday, the Turkish defence ministry said.

Abbasi was visiting Ankara after Turkey carried out air strikes in northern Iraq on targets belonging to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) after it said it orchestrated the first bomb attack in Ankara in years.

Iraq denounced the Turkish air strikes and Iraqi President Abdul-Latif Rashid said he hoped to come to an agreement with Ankara to solve this problem.

(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Bernadette Baum)