March 16, 2003	Sunday	Muharram 12, 1424

ANKARA, March 15: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said a decision on backing the United States against Iraq was not on his immediate agenda.

“This is not on our agenda at the moment,” Mr Erdogan said on Friday when asked when a new vote could be held on the deployment of US forces in Turkey, Anatolia news agency reported.

The government, which assumed office on Friday, would consider the issue only after a vote of confidence in parliament, he said.

Such a vote could be held on March 23 at the earliest according to a timetable announced by Erdogan on Saturday.

The announcement is likely to further frustrate Washington, which has already ordered several warships to leave the Mediterranean for the Red Sea, where they could fire missiles at Iraq without overflying Turkey.

With expectations increasing that a war could be imminent, Washington has stepped up pressure on Ankara to make up its mind on admitting US troops into the country, or at least on opening its airspace to the use of the US military.

Under strong pressure from firmly anti-war public opinion, the Turkish parliament dealt a major blow to US war plans on March 1 when it rejected the deployment of 62,000 US troops on Turkish soil.

A favourable outcome would have allowed the United States to open a northern front against Iraq in addition to a main assault from the south.

But Erdogan hinted that Ankara was seeking fresh guarantees from Washington, notably over its concerns that Iraqi Kurds could use any turmoil to move towards independence, before considering a new parliamentary vote.

“We want to get a second motion through parliament, but the United States should also make some openings to facilitate this,” he told Milliyet newspaper in remarks published Saturday.

The arrival in Ankara of US President George W. Bush’s special envoy to the Iraqi opposition, Zalmay Khalilzad, signalled that Turkey may be asking for stronger guarantees that the Iraqi Kurds, a key element of the Iraqi opposition, will not be allowed to break away from Baghdad.

Kurdish self-rule in northern Iraq, Ankara fears, could encourage its own Kurds to separatism.

“We face significant challenges,” Khalilzad told reporters after talks with Turkish diplomats Saturday.

“We are here to head off any problems, to work out an understanding that can lead to a smooth and orderly transformation should President Bush decide we have to use force to disarm Saddam Hussein and change the regime in Iraq,” he said.

Khalilzad and Turkish officials are to hold talks with Iraqi opposition leaders here early next week in a bid to settle differences on the make-up of post-war Iraq.—AFP