Turkey gives Israel contract to upgrade fighter jets

Turkey has signalled its desire to strengthen its military co-operation with Israel by granting an Israeli company a seventy-five-million dollar contract to upgrade Turkey's F-5 fighter planes.

The announcement came after a meeting of Turkey's defence industry committee chaired by the Prime Minister, Mesut Yilmaz.

Under an agreement signed last year, Israel has already undertaken to upgrade Turkey's F-4 jet fighters.

The two countries are to hold joint naval exercises with the United States off the Israeli coast next week, despite continuing Arab criticism of Turkey's increasing military co-operation with Israel.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service