March 4, 2003	Tuesday	Zul Hijjah 30, 1423

WASHINGTON, March 3: Turkey will forfeit nearly all of a proposed six-billion-dollar US aid package should its parliament continue to refuse to accept the deployment of US troops for a possible war with Iraq, the State Department said Monday.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Washington would continue to assist Turkey economically, but stressed that unless Turkish lawmakers reversed their stance, the six billion dollars would be off the table.

The aid was part of an intense US lobbying effort to convince financially ailing Turkey, which fears more economic reprecussions from a conflict on its southeastern border, to allow the troop deployment.—AFP