TURKEY: At the start of what looks set to be a critical few days for Turkey, the Prime Minister, Mr Abdullah Gul, said yesterday that parliament would meet later this week to debate speeding up military preparations for a possible war against Iraq.
"We are continuing to work hard for peace," said Mr Gul, "but it is undoubtedly the government's duty to protect Turkey's interest against the worst-case scenario."
Mr Gul did not explicitly say what measures he sought, but referred to an article in Turkey's constitution which gives parliament the authority to approve foreign troops on Turkish soil and the dispatch of Turkish troops abroad.
The announcement will be a relief to US war planners, increasingly impatient at the Turkish government's delay in responding to their demands to permit the deployment of thousands of US troops along the 250-mile border separating Turkey from Iraq.
Washington hopes to install up to 80,000 soldiers to open up a northern front against Iraq which it says will lower the human and financial cost of the war and reduce the likelihood of Iraqi troops sabotaging oil wells in Mosul and Kirkuk.
In response to Turkish government fears that such numbers could incite a public backlash, US officials said last week they were considering a staggered deployment which would keep troop numbers in Turkey down to about 15,000 at any one time.
US relief may well be premature, though, for it is still far from clear if the issue of massive assault troop deployment will be put before parliament this week.
Turkey's lawmakers have two decisions to make. The first and least controversial concerns the stationing of about 3,000 US technical officials in Turkey to update Turkish bases in preparation for war. The second involves ground troops.
"The two issues come under the same constitutional article on deployment of foreign troops in Turkey," said Mr Sedat Ergin, Ankara bureau chief for the daily Hurriyet, "but my gut feeling is that the government will treat them separately."
Most Turks strongly oppose war and the new Muslim conservative government has done little to persuade them that co-operation with the US is necessary.