US/TURKEY: US President George Bush yesterday praised Turkey's stabilising role as a secular Muslim democracy in a turbulent region, but thousands of demonstrators marched in anger against his policies in Iraq.
Mr Bush, meeting Turkish leaders before the NATO summit today and tomorrow, said the alliance's only Muslim member should be rewarded with a firm start date for talks to join the European Union, a bloc it has been courting for decades.
"I appreciate very much the example your country has set on how to be a Muslim country, at the same time a country which embraces democracy and rule of law and freedom," he told Prime Minister Mr Tayyip Erdogan, whose government has roots in Islamic politics.
The two countries said they would stand firm in the face of threats by militants in Iraq to behead three Turkish hostages unless Turks stop working with US-led forces there.
Mr Bush, capping improved ties with Ankara after the two fell out over a refusal to let Washington invade Iraq from Turkish soil, was pressed by Mr Erdogan to curb separatist Iraqi Kurds and to crack down on Kurds attacking Turkey from northern Iraq.
The warm greeting for Bush in meetings with Mr Erdogan and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer contrasted sharply with the shouts of some 20,000 protesters in Turkey's business hub Istanbul.
Turkish public opinion remains strongly against the US-led invasion of Iraq. Foreign groups joined trades unionists, leftist parties and Islamists in the biggest of a series of protests across Turkey against Mr Bush.
"Get lost Bush, get lost NATO," the protesters chanted. "Murderer USA get out of the Middle East." Ranks of police watched but no violence was reported. Mr Bush will remain behind a security curtain unprecedented for Turkey.
Istanbul was hit by four al- Qaeda bomb attacks last year that killed more than 60 people, and a rash of small bombings last week has put nerves on edge.
In a last-minute change of plan underscoring security concerns, Mr Bush and his entourage were helicoptered into central Istanbul from the airport, flying low over the water before landing near the city's landmark Haghia Sophia basilica.