March 12, 2003	Wednesday	Muharram 8, 1424

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ANKARA, March 11: Turkey’s governing party leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan was appointed prime minister on Tuesday and charged with forming a new government whose immediate task will be to decide whether to back US war plans against Iraq.

The United States wants to use its key NATO ally as a springboard for attacks on Iraq, but parliament earlier this month rebuffed a US request to deploy 62,000 soldiers on Turkish soil before a possible strike against Baghdad.

Mr Erdogan’s new government, the 59th since the founding of modern Turkey, will decide whether to call a second parliamentary vote, outgoing prime minister Abdullah Gul said.

“The new government will think about this issue,” Mr Gul told a press conference to asses his brief term in office following the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) landslide election victory in November.

Announcing his appointment by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, the charismatic 49-year-old Erdogan said he would not delay in submitting his cabinet list for approval, until when Gul will stay on as a caretaker.

Erdogan’s appointment follows his election to a parliamentary seat in a by-election on Sunday after overcoming a ban that has kept him from public office since 1998.

Observers say Erdogan’s first act will be to convince his MPs to vote in favour of a possible second request on whether to allow the United States to use Turkish territory to invade Iraq from the north in addition to a main thrust from the south.

The AKP leader hinted at the weekend that Turkey wanted fresh US guarantees, especially on northern Iraq, before going ahead with such a move.

A northern front, according to military strategists, would shorten a conflict and minimize casualties, but the Turkish public, still bearing the scars of the 1991 war, is fiercely opposed to a strike on Baghdad.

In a sign that Washington still hopes for a second vote, US military equipment shipped into Turkey has been sent on to regions close to the Iraqi border in the past week.

The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Tuesday demanded parliament launch an investigation into the deployments during a heated session of the 550-member assembly.

“You are all American footmen,” one opposition MP shouted at AKP colleagues, sparking scuffles and an exchange of insults. However, the AKP-dominated parliament rejected the demand.

Gul’s government argues that the current US military activity falls under the scope of an earlier parliamentary ruling allowing US army engineers to upgrade air bases and ports.

But Gul denied there were any US combat forces on Turkish soil.

“There is nothing contrary to agreements. No combat forces have come to Turkey and no combat forces have crossed into Iraq via Turkey,” he told NTV television.

Ankara is planning to send in soldiers into northern Iraq — a move which was also voted down by parliament along with the US troop deployment — to prevent the region’s breakaway Kurds from declaring independence.

It fears a Kurdish state next door could reignite insurgency among its own restive Kurds in the southeast of the country.—AFP