Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani was meeting Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Wednesday, as Ankara was locked in a diplomatic standoff with Baghdad over the deployment of troops in northern Iraq.

Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani was meeting Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Wednesday, as Ankara was locked in a diplomatic standoff with Baghdad over the deployment of troops in northern Iraq.

With tensions soaring, Turkey urged its citizens to leave all areas of Iraq, excluding Iraqi Kurdistan, due to increased security risks.

After arriving in Ankara, Barzani made an unannounced visit to Turkey's National Intelligence Organisation (MIT) and held talks with spy chief Hakan Fidan, local media reported.

He then entered talks with Erdogan, an official from the president's office told said. He was also to meet Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu later in the evening.

Barzani has long-standing ties with Ankara, and there are multiple Turkish military sites in Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, of which he is the president.

But there have been growing strains between Ankara and the central Baghdad government over Turkey's deployment of up to 300 soldiers in Bashiqa close to an area held by the Takfiri group, ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and Levant) in northern Iraq.

The Iraqi federal government has told Turkey to withdraw its troops, saying they had entered the country illegally without its consent.

"No-one can say that this (troop deployment) is a surprise," Davutoglu told foreign reporters in Istanbul.

"When the threats increased (to the lightly-armed Turkish trainers), we sent troops to protect the camp. It's not an act of aggression but an act of solidarity."

"When we saw the reaction (of the Iraqi government) we stopped the transfer," said Davutoglu, who is expected to visit Baghdad soon with the aim of calming tensions.

Baghdad on Sunday gave Turkey a 48-hour deadline and threatened to appeal to the UN Security Council unless the troops were withdrawn.