Syria's opposition has asked Turkey for permission to open a representative office in the country, a Turkish diplomat said Monday.

The Syrian National Council, the country's largest and most representative opposition grouping, put the request to Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu during talks on Sunday, the diplomat said.

Iraqi Kurd leader Massud Barzani said Saturday he opposes Turkey's military campaign against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq as it will fail to permanently end the conflict.

Barzani arrived in Ankara Thursday for talks focused on Turkey's ongoing operation against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday that Berlin wanted the United Nations to take a firmer line on Syria's attacks on civilians after nearly eight months of deadly violence.

Merkel told reporters after talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that they agreed in "condemning the human rights violations occurring in Syria".

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he believes the Syrian opposition will be successful in their “glorious resistance” to the ongoing government crackdown, Turkey’s English-language daily Today’s Zaman reported Tuesday.

Speaking during his Justice and Development Party's parliamentary bloc meeting on Tuesday, Erdogan warned that Turkey cannot remain silent in the face of the events in Syria.

Rescuers scrambled through the rubble in a desperate search on Monday for survivors of an earthquake that killed at least 264 people in Turkey as residents fled the scenes of devastation.

People living in eastern Van province issued cries for help on Twitter, giving out the addresses of collapsed buildings and the number of people trapped under the debris, as hundreds of rescuers worked round the clock.

Turkish jets kept up bombing raids on Kurdish rebel bases in northern Iraq overnight, as the rebels confirmed that some Turkish troops crossed into Iraq, officials and media reports said Friday.

Turkish war planes continued to take off from Diyarbakir, the regional capital of the mainly Kurdish southeast, to strike at Kurdish rebels who killed 24 soldiers in a string of coordinated attacks on Wednesday, local security forces said.

Kurdish rebels killed 26 Turkish soldiers and injured 16 Wednesday in simultaneous attacks in southeast Turkey, marking one of the deadliest days for the army in its fight against the separatists since 1984.

The attacks by Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) rebels on Turkish troops occurred in eight locations in Cukurca and Yuksekova in Hakkari province near the Iraqi border, during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, local security sources said.

Turkey's prime minister on Tuesday rebuffed French President Nicolas Sarkozy's call for Ankara to recognize the World War I-era killing of Armenians as genocide, urging "honesty" in politics.

Speaking in Turkish parliament, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticized Sarkozy for using different languages when he spoke in Turkey, France and Armenia.

Syria on Monday warned Turkey against "inflaming" unrest in the country, where more than 3,000 people are estimated to have died in six months of protests against President Bashar Assad.

Buthaina Shaaban, media adviser to the Syrian president, who has repeatedly promised reforms, told reporters in Kuala Lumpur that "armed gangs" were responsible for the violence.

A Syrian army defector has called for military aid to help his armed opposition group topple the Damascus regime, in an interview published in Turkey on Monday.

Colonel Riad al-Asaad, who defected in July, appealed for weapons for an armed opposition group he set up called the "Syrian Free Army".