Turkey wants deal on U.S. troops in writing-Erdogan

"This will not happen without a signature," Erdogan told Yeni Safak, an Islamist-leaning newspaper. "We don’t have a date in mind. Only when we reach agreement will we send the (troop deployment) request to parliament."
Washington has expressed frustration over Turkey’s delay in accepting a multi-billion-dollar aid package in exchange for U.S. access to bases and sea ports, which could serve as staging posts for a war against neighbouring Iraq.
Turkey wants a formal assurance the U.S. Congress will act quickly to release financial aid, Erdogan said.
He also said fears of social upheaval and instability in the region outweighed Turkey’s concerns over whether its crisis-hit economy could withstand the shock of an Iraq war.
"It’s ridiculous to call this bargaining for dollars. The political and military dimensions are far more important, the economic dimension comes after these," Erdogan said.
Turkey argues that its economy lost more than $30 billion after the 1991 Gulf War and that it had too little say in the new political order in the area, especially northern Iraq.
The White House said on Wednesday night its latest offer, of $6 billion in grants and up to $20 billion in loans, was final. Official sources here said contacts overnight with Washington had brought some progress, but gave no details.
Later in the day Prime Minister Abdullah Gul was due to meet Turkey’s top general and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who argued this week that no parliament vote on U.S. troops was possible without a second U.N. vote authorising use of force against Iraq.

TURKISH TROOPS IN IRAQ
Military officials and local authorities in southeast Turkey told Reuters up to 7,000 Turkish troops, with armoured vehicles and tanks, had rolled into north Iraq in recent days in response to a perceived threat by Turkish Kurdish guerrillas there.
"The intelligence that has reached us in recent days shows KADEK militants moving towards the border and preparing for action. We have been forced to take military precautions," a military official said.
KADEK, formerly called the PKK, is a separatist movement that waged an armed campaign for a Kurdish homeland in southeast Turkey that killed 30,000 people, mainly Kurds, in the 1980s and 1990s.
The military says a war next door could reignite unrest in the impoverished area bordering semi-autonomous northern Iraq, administered by Iraqi Kurds since the end of the 1991 Gulf War. The Turkish military had also turned back a group of 20 Iraqis trying to cross the border to Turkey to escape the looming conflict, an official told Reuters.
Turkish generals want to send tens of thousands troops into the enclave to stem a potential refugee flow and block any attempts by Iraqi Kurds to establish an independent state there.
"Turkey must express its reservations now so that other things do not develop. They keep saying ‘We respect the territorial integrity (of Iraq),’ but what degree of respect will they have when it comes to implementation?" Erdogan said.
Erdogan led the Justice and Development Party to a massive victory in a November election, but was barred from the race because of a previous conviction for inciting religious hatred.
His deputy, Abdullah Gul, is prime minister, but a March by-election in which Erdogan plans to run could pave the way for him to take over the top job.