TURKEY: Turkish authorities discovered a vehicle full of explosives at Istanbul's international airport yesterday ahead of US President George Bush's visit to Turkey today, a local television station said.
But an airport official said investigators had so far found no evidence of a bomb.
"Security received a warning and closed the car park for 1-1½ hours. At this time, they have been unable to find any explosive device," the official said.
CNN Turk said the suspect vehicle had been parked in the airport's public garage. The bomb squad had also destroyed a remote-controlled explosive device found in the car park, it said. It was not clear if it was in the same vehicle.
Turkey's largest city is on edge ahead of a Nato summit which Mr Bush will attend after today's US-EU summit in Co Clare.
Authorities have stepped up security in Istanbul, a city of more than 10 million people, conducting searches of pedestrians in public areas and searching people on the road to the airport.
A bomb explosion killed four people, including the bomber, and wounded 21 others on Thursday in Istanbul. Authorities have blamed left-wing extremists for the attack.
Meanwhile, Nato countries are trying to reach an agreement to help train Iraq's security forces after hours of wrangling yesterday on how far to go in responding to a request from the interim Iraqi government, diplomats said. "I think an agreement is very much within our reach. Resistance has somehow broken down now," one diplomat said, referring to French and German opposition to a substantive role for the 26-nation alliance.
The tense discussions at Nato's headquarters echoed last year's debates over the US-led war to topple Saddam Hussein.
President Bush would tell allies at the Istanbul summit that training Iraqi security forces was part of the alliance's mission to spread freedom and liberty, his national security adviser, Dr Condoleezza Rice, said.
The Nato Secretary General, Mr Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, has said he expects allies to agree to a request from the incoming Iraqi Prime Minister, Mr Iyad Allawi, for "some form of training".
But diplomats said there were differences over whether Nato should train Iraqi officers inside the country under a Nato flag, or limit its role to training outside Iraq and acting as a clearing house for national efforts. There were also disputes over whether to open the door to a more far-reaching Nato military involvement at a later stage.