Turkey keeps US guessing on troops

TURKEY entered into a political war of nerves with the United States yesterday when it signalled it was delaying a decision on allowing US troops to deploy on Turkish soil for a possible invasion of Iraq.

Prime Minister Abdullah Gul told reporters at a European Union emergency summit on Iraq his government would not ask parliament to open military bases to American forces today as it had previously said it would.

“We are not going to the Turkish parliament (today),” Mr Gul said. “We have some concerns on economic issues, political issues and military issues. First of all the Turkish government should be satisfied on those.”