The Turkish parliament has postponed a vote on allowing US troops to use Turkey as aspringboard for any attack on Iraq.
A ruling party official said the issue could now be decided on Saturday.
The governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) put off thevote as it was still negotiating with the opposition and theparliament speaker on the issue, party official Salih Kapusuz toldreporters.
Parliamentary sources speculated that the postponement reflecteddivisions within the government on whether approving the deploymentof US soldiers now would meet a condition ofinternational legitimacy, as required under the Turkishconstitution.
President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinchave repeatedly called for a vote to be conditional on the UNsecurity council authorising military action against Baghdad.
Sources also suggested the government might have wanted to putback the vote until after a meeting on Friday of the NationalSecurity Council, the country's top advisory body.Earlier, Turkish defence Minister Vecdi Gonul confirmed Turkey and the United States had agreed on military co-operation and on the use of Turkey's bases for any US-led war against Iraq.
The agreement comes after weeks of talks between NATO allies Turkey and the United States on military co-operation and a multi-billion dollar aid package in return for Ankara's support.