ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said on Thursday the United States had promised to discuss with Ankara any steps it might consider taking against Iraq in its war on terrorism.
NATO member Turkey has opposed strikes against neighboring Iraq, fearing that taking military action against Iraq for its refusal to allow U.N. weapons inspectors to return could cause economic uncertainty.
This would send a flood of refugees into Turkey and stir its restive Kurdish population in the border region.
Ecevit is due in Washington next month for talks with President Bush.
In a later interview on state-run TRT television, Ecevit said a U.S. strike on Iraq was unlikely in the short term. ``I don't see a danger of a military operation on Iraq at this stage and I don't desire it,'' he said.
Turkish Chief of General Staff Huseyin Kivrikoglu, whose military wields great influence on the government, said this week military action against Iraqi President Saddam Hussein would cause Turkey ``great adversity'' by opening the way for an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq.
Iraqi Kurds, protected by U.S. warplanes patrolling a no-fly zone, broke away from Baghdad after the 1991 Gulf War.
Turkey has fought a long internal war against Kurdish guerrillas fighting for autonomy for the large Kurdish minority in southeast Turkey, which borders partly on northern Iraq.
A leading Iraqi newspaper deplored as short-sighted on Thursday the Turkish parliament's decision this week to extend for six months a mandate allowing U.S. and British warplanes to patrol the no-fly zone in northern Iraq.
Turkey, racked by its worst recession in decades, has said 11 years of U.N. sanctions on Iraq have cost it some 30 billion in lost trade.
Ecevit said Turkey's economic relations with the United States would top the agenda during his meeting with Bush. Washington has supported its Muslim ally's 19 billion lending pact with the IMF, which is set to loan Ankara another 10 billion next year.