BAGHDAD—Plans for Turkish troops to join a U.S.-led multinational force in Iraq have stalled in the teeth of Iraqi objections, maybe for good.

If any Turkish troops do deploy, they may take on a low-key role such as securing arms dumps, rather than patrolling flashpoint towns in the "Sunni triangle" north and west of Baghdad, a Western diplomat said.

The U.S. is after cannon fodder.

Toby Dodge, the British author of a new book called Inventing Iraq

"The reaction in Turkey and Iraq has been very negative," said Mohammed Taufiq, an adviser to Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, who is soon to take over the rotating presidency of Iraq's U.S.-appointed Governing Council.

"Turkish troops would complicate the security situation. Some Iraqis feel that if they come, they will never leave," he said, adding other groups on the council opposed the idea more vocally than the Kurds.

Turkey, uneasy about any moves toward Kurdish independence, has viewed with disquiet Kurdish rule of an enclave in northern Iraq since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Washington, finding other nations wary of committing forces who might be identified with U.S.-British occupiers, had hoped Turkey's offer this month would provide relief to its 130,000 beleaguered troops in Iraq. Guerrillas have killed 109 U.S. soldiers since May 1, when U.S. President George W. Bush declared major combat over, three weeks after Saddam Hussein's fall.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted on Friday as saying the United States had asked for a break in talks on the issue. He gave no reason.

"Erdogan has it about right," a U.S. diplomat in the region said. There has been no official U.S. comment.

A decision to put the plan on ice signals that the U.S. has failed to persuade the Governing Council, its own creation, to drop its objections to troops from Turkey or any of Iraq's other neighbours.

Turkey says the bomb attack on its embassy in Baghdad this month will not sway its position.

But the question remains as to how much benefit an injection of Turkish military manpower would bring.

"The U.S. is after cannon fodder," said Toby Dodge, the British author of a new book called Inventing Iraq.

"But what they really need is intelligence and Arabic speakers. They are talking of 10,000 (Turkish) troops, but substituting expertise for numbers would be more politically palatable and strategically useful."

Western analysts and Asian diplomats see scant chance Turkish troops will be sent, given the plan's unpopularity with the Turkish and Iraqi publics.

Kurds are all too aware of Turkey's hostility to their national aspirations. Sunni and Shiite Arabs recall the days when Ottoman Turks ruled what is now Iraq — and some fear Ankara has lingering territorial ambitions.

Turkey champions Iraq's small Turkmen minority, but denies it has any secret agenda to regain control of the lost Ottoman provinces, including the Kirkuk oil fields. It says it wants to aid its U.S. ally in promoting a stable, unified Iraq, but is not yearning to send troops.

The Turkish parliament voted on Oct. 7 to offer troops for one year, but the weeks are already ticking by and Iraq's Governing Council could well defer any formal decision until after the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which began yesterday.

The parliamentary vote may have met a key Turkish goal — to repair U.S. ties strained by the assembly's refusal to let U.S. forces use Turkish soil to invade Iraq. The move paved the way for an $8.5 billion (U.S.) loan offer to relieve Turkey's debt burden. The U.S. links the money to Turkish "co-operation" in Iraq.

Turkey and Iraq had thriving economic ties until Saddam's 1990 invasion of Kuwait brought U.N. sanctions. Turkish firms are active in postwar Iraq, but pipeline sabotage has prevented the resumption of Iraqi oil exports through Turkey.

"The best thing the Turks can send is contractors and businessmen, not troops," Taufiq said.

© 2003 Reuters Ltd

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