March 20, 2003	Thursday	Muharram 16, 1424

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ANKARA, March 19: Turkey’s government said on Wednesday it would ask parliament only to approve US military overflights to Iraq, signalling the end of Washington’s urgent efforts to deploy thousands of US troops on Turkish soil.

US officials said permission to use Turkish airspace to fly into Iraq would not justify any of the billions of dollars in aid the United States had pledged in an earlier plan to station ground troops for a ‘northern front’ against Iraq.

But they held out an olive branch to the Turkish government as it scrambled to reassure local financial markets shaken by the prospect of a war that could start as early as Thursday morning and may batter the fragile Turkish economy.

“The door is not fully closed,” one US official said. “Contacts continue.”

The lira dipped against the dollar and stocks fell almost eight percent before pulling back slightly on hopes of a reduced deal with Washington or help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), now conducting a 16 billion dollars crisis plan in Turkey.

The new government motion, likely to face a vote on Thursday, came after parliament rejected a motion to allow 62,000 US troops into the country.

“The motion we will present...will be to allow the transit of US military aircraft and Turkish soldiers to be deployed abroad,” government spokesman Cemil Cicek said.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said the motion would not allow US planes entering Turkish airspace to use airbases during any Iraq war, including for refuelling.

“No, none of those are in it,” the Anatolian news agency quoted him as saying.

Erdogan made no mention of US planes already based at the Incirlik base for patrols of a no-fly zone over northern Iraq, but it appeared likely that the draft motion would say their mandate for operations could not be expanded to include a wider war on Iraq.

The United States could attack Iraq as early as Wednesday night, when President George W. Bush’s deadline for Saddam Hussein and his sons to leave the country or face war expires.

The deal with Ankara, the result of months of tough negotiating, means the United States may still be able to fly a more limited force across Turkey’s airspace into northern Iraq to protect oil fields and exert pressure on Saddam’s rearguard.

But it would not allow a ‘northern front’ via Turkey’s southern border which might have accelerated victory over Baghdad and lessened US casualties. It might also raise the hazard of local conflicts in northern Iraq — an area beyond Baghdad’s control and run by Kurdish groups since 1991.

Cicek said Washington had agreed that Turkish troops be allowed into northern Iraq during any US invasion to set up a buffer zone against any exodus of Iraqi refugees to Turkey.—Reuters