ANKARA, April 30 (AFP) -The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has warned that its inclusion on an enlarged list of terrorist organisations drawn up by the European Union means "war" and said that it would use its right to self-defence, the pro-Kurdish Mesopotamian news agency reported Tuesday.
The European Union "will start a new process of war by including the Kurdish liberation movement in the list of terrorist organizations," Osman Ocalan, a senior PKK commander, said in an interview on the pro-Kurdish Medya TV late Monday, the agency reported.

"We will use our legitimate right to self-defence in case of war," added Ocalan, the brother of PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan who is on death row in Turkey for treason.

Ocalan's outburst came after the PKK, which fought for self-rule in southeastern Turkey for 15 years, was put on a new list of terrorist groups by permenant representatives of the EU nations meeting in Brussels on Monday, diplomatic sources said.

The group announced last week it had changed its name to the Congress for Freedom and Democracy in Kurdistan (KADEK), and would fight for Kurdish rights through legal means.

Ocalan claimed that the EU's decision would encourage Turkey to ignore Kurdish calls for a peaceful solution to the Kurdish conflict and meant "an approval of attacks against the Kurdish liberation movement."

"We hold the EU responsible for a possible war... We warn the EU, the United States and Turkey over their dangerous policies," he added.

Turkey, an EU candidate country, had been unhappy that the original EU list, adopted in December, failed to name organizations which Ankara has "persistently" asked Brussels to include, one of which was the PKK.

More than 36,000 people -- most of them PKK rebels -- have been killed in PKK attacks and counterattacks by the powerful Turkish army.

In September 1999, the group said that it was ending its armed campaign and withdrawing from Turkey to seek a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

But Turkish officials and the army have brushed aside the PKK truce as a "ploy" and called on the rebels to surrender to the authorities.