ANKARA, July 16 Turkey on Friday unveiled its first drone aeroplane, a surveillance craft able to fly for 24-hour stretches over the rugged mountains where Kurdish rebels are waging a deadly insurgency.

Turkey's eagerness to produce it own military technology mirrors its increasingly robust and independent diplomacy in the region. Producing its own drone fleet would allow Turkey to sever an important link with Israel, which has provided Turkey with drones even amid rising tensions over the Gaza Strip. While the success of the Turkish-made drone is far from assured, Turkish engineers said they were confident it would become part of the country's arsenal.

Ozcan Ertem, head of the project, said an armed version of the Anka, or Phoenix, was possible but not in the works for now.

Some 43 countries have now developed unmanned aerial vehicles, which have proved to be extremely effective in gathering intelligence and, in US hands, staging attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq.

Ertem said four or five countries, including Pakistan, which has also sought drones from the US, are expected to place orders for the Anka once the Turkish Air Force issues an order probably later this year. The first system, comprising three planes and remote-control units, was expected to be delivered to the Turkish Air Force in 2013.

The drone, with a 56-foot wingspan and an ability to fly for 24 hours at a speed of 75 knots per hour and height of 30,000 feet is expected to spy mostly on Kurdish rebels who have recently increased infiltration into Turkey from bases in northern Iraq and escalated attacks on Turkish targets in a war for autonomy in the Kurdish-dominated southeast that killed as many as 40,000 people since 1984.

Turkey has purchased 10 massive Heron drones from Israel and their delivery was expected to be completed in August.

Turkey had also bought or leased other drones from Israel, he said. The United States separately provides intelligence from Predator drones on the Kurdish rebels .

Israel has also upgraded some of Turkey's combat jets and tanks with modern radar equipment, according to defence officials and analysts, but Turkey's defence cooperation is threatened by the dispute over Israel's May 31 raid on an aid ship that attempted to break its blockade of Gaza. After Israeli commandos killed eight Turks and one Turkish-American, Turkey withdrew its ambassador and pulled out of three naval drills with Israel in the Mediterranean in response.

Remzi Barlas, head of the engineering group at Turkish Aerospace Space Industries Inc, said Anka was as capable as the Israeli Heron and even features a better anti-icing system that works for the entire 24 hour-flight. Its diesel Centurion engine by German-based company Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH works with jet fuel that is easier to find in remote Turkish bases in the southeast, he said. A high-octane fuel is used for the Heron. —AP