Turkish troops crossed into northern Iraq overnight in the latest in a series of small-scale raids against Kurdish separatists over recent months, Iraqi and Turkish officials said yesterday.

A Turkish military official said the soldiers intervened when they spotted Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants across the border. There were no reports of any casualties from what he described as "a limited clash" with the separatists.

"Two PKK groups were spotted just across the border and it was determined that they were planning attacks and a battalion of soldiers intervened," the military official said.