Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul says Ankara has agreed in principle to a US request to send Turkish soldiers into neighbouring Iraq for postwar peacekeeping duties.
Countries including Italy, Bulgaria and Denmark have offered to provide troops to help stabilise and reconstruct the country in the aftermath of the U.S.-led war.
Muslim Turkey's close ties with Washington were strained last month when it refused to let tens of thousands of US troops deploy along its border for an attack on Baghdad.
Ankara will now await further details from Washington on the size of Turkey's possible contribution and whether the force would operate under a UN mandate or within a coalition of peacemakers led by the United States or NATO.
Gul said Washington had requested help in humanitarian work and reconstruction as well as troops to help bolster security.
"We are saying yes to all of these but it will become clear in the coming days how things will proceed and under what conditions," Gul was quoted as saying by the state-run Anatolian news agency.Relations with Washington have improved after Turkey granted US planes overflight rights and congress approved a $1 billion grant transferable into up to $8.5 billion (5.4 billion pounds) in loan guarantees.
The Turkish military has also backed off from threats to invade northern Iraq, but says it reserves the right to do so if Iraqi Kurds, allied with US forces there, try to establish a new state. Turkey fears such a move would reignite separatism among its own 12 million Kurds.