Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Monday that a joint operation with Iran against Kurdish militants was "always on the agenda", a week after Tehran's top armed forces commander visited Ankara for rare talks.

"It is always on the agenda to carry out a joint operation with Iran against those terror organisations which pose a threat," Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and its Iranian affiliate the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), which both have rear bases in neighbouring Iraq.