The White House Tuesday reiterated calls for Turkey's cross-border offensive against Kurdish rebels in Iraq to be short, but declined to give a timeframe saying Ankara had acted responsibly so far.

"We do want it to be short-term, and we want it very narrowly targeted," said spokeswoman Dana Perino, referring to the Turkish military's incursion into northern Iraq to flush out Kurdish rebels.

But she added: "I'm not going to put a timeframe on it. Obviously, we support Turkey, and we support Iraq."

The government in Baghdad has denounced the operation as an "unacceptable" violation of its sovereignty.

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"It's obviously a situation that none of us would choose to have, but it's one that the Turks, we believe, so far, have been fairly responsible in moving forward with this operation it's important that they continue to work with the Iraqis," Perino said.

She added the White House believed "Turkey does have the right to defend itself" from attacks by fighters from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to fly to Ankara Wednesday for talks on the offensive the following day.

Turkey says it will withdraw its troops once they achieve their objective of routing the rebels and destroying their camps, but has given no timeframe.

"We understand that Iraq does not want Turkey to be in their region but they also don't want the PKK to up in their northern region and they understand what it's like to have terrorist attacking innocent civilians," said Perino.

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