Turkey edging open door to 62,000 US troops

12.30pm

ANKARA, Turkey - Turkey said it was preparing to open ports and air bases to some 62,000 US troops for a possible invasion of Iraq once it concludes a deal with Washington on financial support and military co-operation.

The government submitted a motion to parliament outlining the plans for US forces today, and a vote is expected in the next two days.

The Justice and Development Party, known as the AKP, has a big majority despite internal dissent over what would be an unpopular war.

Washington had expected a parliamentary go-ahead a week ago.

US ships carrying armour, munitions and supplies for the Fourth Infantry Division, a body of 20,000 to 30,000, waited off Turkey's Mediterranean coast for the green light from Ankara.

A copy of the motion seen by Reuters included giving permission for the deployment of 62,000 foreign troops for six months. It would also allow the United States to send up to 255 warplanes and 65 helicopters to Turkey.

Turkish and US officials also continued talks Tuesday on a multibillion dollar financial package to ease the effects of higher interest rates on its huge debt, rising oil prices and a fall-off in tourism revenues. Turkish officials have said a financial deal is now well within reach.

The troop plan could conceivably be passed before agreement on terms. Deployment might then go ahead only after the signing of a memorandum of understanding incorporating final terms.

At Iskenderun port, a cargo ship docked and discharged heavy trucks of the kind used to carry tanks or other heavy armour. Authorities say US movements around the port now fall under an interim deal allowing Washington to upgrade bases and ports.

Britain and the United States say they will allow about two weeks before bringing to a vote a United Nations Security Council resolution accusing Iraq of harbouring weapons of mass destruction and approving armed action.

The AKP, viewed by the powerful military with suspicion because of its Islamist roots, has bargained hard for a financial package. The United States had grown concerned in recent weeks that agreement might not be reached quickly enough to move troops in time for a strike.

But a northern front against Iraq is an important part of US military planning. Troops pouring southwards from Turkish territory would relieve pressure on a possible main invasion force heading from the flatter, southern lands around Kuwait.

The AKP has resisted the move toward war throughout. Though it denies any Islamist links, it has always argued for closer relations with Muslim neighbours while pursuing its aim of European Union membership.

Turkey has said it does not want to be seen as the "regional bully" and does not want its troops to fire a single shot in Iraq. But it seeks to deploy thousands of its own troops in northern Iraq - an area ruled by two Kurdish groups and beyond Baghdad's rule since the 1991 Gulf War.

Turkey has made it clear it would do everything necessary to stop creation, in the chaos of war, of an independent Kurdish state it fears could reignite Kurdish separatism within Turkey, home to the Middle East's largest population of Kurds.

The Foreign Ministry Tuesday sought to ease rising tensions with Iraqi Kurds and said Turkish troops in northern Iraq would only seek to secure Turkey's borders and to prevent a flood of refugees from spilling across the border.

Iraqi Kurds, for their part, deny ambitions to independence and say they could not accept tens of thousands of Turkish troops in northern Iraq. The danger of confrontation between Turkish troops and Kurds clearly haunts US military planners.

- REUTERS