The United States this evening renewed warnings to Turkey not to send troops into northern Iraq as talks to resolve a festering row on the matter ended inconclusively in Ankara.
"We see no need for Turkish incursion, and that is what we are saying to our Turkish friends," Secretary of State Colin Powell said. "There is no need for Turkish troops to cross the border."
Powell, speaking in an interview with the Fox News Channel, said Turkish officials had assured both the United States and NATO that it had not yet sent any troops into nothern Iraq and that it had no plans to do so at the moment.
"They have no plans for an incursion at this time," he said.
Since Friday there have been conflicting reports about whether Turkey has sent troops into Iraqi Kurdistan which it has said it wants to do to prevent an influx of Kurdish refugees.
Ankara fears the Kurds in northern Iraq may declare independence and fuel unrest with its own Kurdish minority, while Washington has been worried a Turkish deployment would spark clashes with the Kurds it has enlisted to fight Baghdad's forces.
The United States has said repeatedly that it would oppose any Turkish troop deployment that takes place without coordination with the US-led coalition now leading the invasion of Iraq.
Yesterday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey and the United States had reached agreement on the deployment of Turkish troops in a limited area skirting the border in northern Iraq.
US officials quickly denied that any such agreement had been reached.
AFP