US official to Turkey to discuss differences over Iraq (Armitage)

[Barrett808]

US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage is due in Ankara to discuss differences over US policy in neighboring Iraq, which has been criticized by Washington's NATO ally Turkey, US sources here said.

Armitage, who is to step down from his post along with his boss, US Secretary of State Colin Powell who resigns early next year, is scheduled to meet Monday with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, the source said.

Relations between the strategic partners were strained by the US-led invasion in Iraq in March 2003. Public opposition in mainly Muslim but secular Turkey is strongly opposed to the US presence in Iraq and the Turkish parliament last year refused to let US forces use Turkish territory to open a northern front in the war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

A deputy from Erdogan's conservative Justice and Development party, which has its roots in a now-banned Islamist movement, in November accused US troops of committing "genocide" in Iraq.

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