The Kurdish rebel group in Turkey, the PKK, has confirmed it's ending its fifteen years of armed struggle against the Turkish government.

The decision was made at a PKK congress, following an order to stop all armed activities by the organisation's leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who's in a Turkish jail after being sentenced to death for treason.

A seven-point plan has been drawn up to transform the PKK into a political organisation.

But a BBC Correspondent says some commanders have refused to give up arms and others are reported to have left the organisation in protest.

There's also been no change so far in the way Turkey and many other countries view the PKK as a terrorist organisation. Turkey accuses the PKK of killing more than thirty thousand people.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service