Thirty Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants burned their weapons at the mouth of a cave in northern Iraq on Friday, marking a symbolic and significant step toward ending a decades-long insurgency against Turkey.

Footage from the ceremony showed the fighters, half of them women, queuing to place AK-47 assault rifles, bandoliers and other guns into a large grey cauldron.

Flames later engulfed the black gun shafts pointed to the sky, as Kurdish, Iraqi and Turkish officials watched nearby.

The PKK, locked in conflict with the Turkish state and outlawed since 1984, decided in May to disband, disarm and end its separatist struggle after a public call to do so from its long-imprisoned leader Abdullah Ocalan.

After a series of failed peace efforts, the new initiative could pave the way for Ankara to end an insurgency that has killed over 40,000 people, burdened the economy and wrought deep social and political divisions in Turkey and the wider region.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said he hoped the PKK's dissolution would bolster Turkish security and regional stability.

"We voluntarily destroy our weapons, in your presence, as a step of goodwill and determination," senior PKK figure Bese Hozat said.

The end of Turkey's conflict with the PKK could have consequences across the region, including in neighbouring Syria where the United States is allied with Syrian Kurdish forces that Ankara deems a PKK offshoot. (Reuters)