Barak seeks support in Turkey

Barak's third visit to Turkey in a year

By Chris Morris in Ankara

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has been holding talks with Turkish leaders in Ankara on military co-operation and the Middle East peace process.

Mr Barak's visit is the latest in a series of foreign trips by senior Israeli officials designed to gather support for their position in the peace talks with the Palestinians.

Turkey has close ties with both Israel and the Palestinians. Earlier this month, the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, visited Ankara to win support for his proposal to declare a separate state.

Both Mr Barak and his Turkish counterpart, Bulent Ecevit, said they were very happy with the increasingly close relationship between the two countries.

They described it as an example of how peace and stability could work across the Middle East.

Defence contracts

The visit is Mr Barak's third to Turkey in a year - a sign, he suggested, of the importance he attaches to the Israeli-Turkish relationship.

Defence co-operation is high on Barak's agenda

He said he was grateful for Turkey's insight on the peace process, and that he valued the growing bilateral ties between the two countries.

The Turkish Prime Minister, Bulent Ecevit, said there was already extensive co-operation in many areas of the defence industry, and Mr Barak brushed aside suggestions that there might be any rift over deals which have not come through.

"We have some projects in Turkey, " he said.

"We of course - our defence-related industry - would like to have more contracts in Turkey, but ultimately the Turkish authorities have to make the judgement what is the best thing for Turkey to do."

Mr Barak is now trying to persuade Turkey to give Israel's defence industry contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

They include a lucrative helicopter tender, a tank-modernisation programme and the supply of Turkey's first spy satellite.

Mr Ecevit said everyone was beginning to realize that Israeli-Turkish defence relations are not a threat to any third party.

But that is still not how it looks in much of the Arab world, where Turkey's 1996 military co-operation agreement with Israel was seen as a Turkish betrayal of its Muslim brethren.