TURKEY: As Turkey's government yet again opted to postpone until Saturday its crucial vote on whether to allow thousands of US troops into the country, diplomats in Ankara and Washington yesterday announced they had reached agreement on a plan for military co-operation in Iraq.
Yet, while both sides continue to haggle openly over the details of a $30 billion US aid package aimed to bolster Turkey's economy against the war, the exact nature of the military plan remains shrouded in secrecy.
"All I can say is that agreement is complete on the military issues," Turkey's Defence Minister, Mr Vecdi Gonul, told reporters in Ankara yesterday.
Washington was even less forthcoming. Asked about possible Turkish involvement in a US-led invasion of northern Iraq, White House spokesman Mr Ari Fleischer replied that "the position of the US is unequivocal - the territorial integrity of Iraq should be honoured". It is not the details of US plans to form a second, northern front against Iraq which are controversial.
US ships anchored for weeks in the eastern Mediterranean await Ankara's approval to begin disembarking 62,000 troops and equipment in the southern Turkish ports of Iskenderun and Mersin.
While 20,000 members of the US 4th Infantry Division are expected to cross straight into northern Iraq, a further 42,000 will be moved into six tent cities scattered throughout the south-eastern Turkish provinces of Gaziantep, Malatya, Diyarbakir, Mardin and Batman.
US planes enforcing the no-fly zone over northern Iraq have been based in the Turkish base at Incirlik since before the Gulf War in 1991. But according to a plan agreed by Turkish and US diplomats earlier this week, their numbers will be bolstered by a further 320 planes and helicopters expected to arrive in Turkey by March 5th.
US military planners say air bases at Incirlik and Diyarbakir will be used for raids on Iraq, while at least three other airports will host cargo and fuel transporters.
What has taken the two sides so long to reach agreement over, analysts say, is the exact nature of Turkey's military function in an invasion of Iraq.
Deeply suspicious of the Kurdish authorities who have governed de facto autonomous northern Iraq since 1991, Ankara baulks at Washington's repeated demands that it limit itself to marshalling a possible flood of refugees.
Though no agreement has yet been reached on the number of Turkish troops to be sent across the border, the chairman of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party, Mr Tayyip Erdogan, insisted on Wednesday that "Turkish soldiers \ outnumber American soldiers two to one". While at first Turkish troops would limit themselves to a 12-mile wide buffer zone just inside the Iraqi border, he added, they would not hesitate to go beyond if they felt the US was failing to protect Turkey's interests.
"We cannot wholly entrust our security to another party," he said. "If necessary, we would see it as our mission temporarily to control northern Iraq."
Turkish nationalists have long argued the oil-rich region of Mosul and Kirkuk was unjustly stripped from Turkey by the British after the Turkish War of Independence in 1921, leading Iraqi Kurdish leaders to suggest Ankara plans aggressive action under cover of war.
Turkish officials including Mr Erdogan have said that only the US army will be permitted to go as far south as the oil fields. But Ankara's insistence that it should have the right to protect the Turkish-speaking Turcoman minority concentrated around the city of Kirkuk suggests it may not be long before Turkish troops expand beyond their 12-mile buffer zone.