The Kurdistan Democratic Party -- one of the two main Iraqi-based Kurdish factions -- has reacted sceptically to a ceasefire proposal by the Kurdish rebel group in Turkey, the PKK.

The PKK has bases in northern Iraq, and the two organisations have fought each other sporadically since 1992.

The PKK leader, Abdullah Ocalan, who's in jail in Turkey after being sentenced to death, initiated the call for an end to the PKK's fifteen-year-old guerrilla campaign and a withdrawal of its forces.

The KDP said such offers in the past had proved to be temporary.

Its representative in London Dilshad Miran said if the PKK was serious this time it must withdraw its fighters from northern Iraq.