Turkey plan to enter north puts Nato deal at risk

Germany and Belgium have threatened to pull out of Nato's operation to defend Turkey against aggression, if Ankara sends its troops into Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.

Yesterday's statements came as part of a wider diplomatic push to dissuade the Turks from crossing the border into Iraq, including hints that such a move would damage Turkish hopes for EU membership.

After weeks of wrangling, Nato recently deployed four Awacs aerial surveillance planes as well as anti-missile systems for Turkey's defence. But the operation could be hit severely if Berlin went ahead with its threat to back out. Not only does Germany provide one-third of the Nato Awacs crews, including the force commander, it has also sent a number of Patriot missiles.

Germany's Foreign Minister, Joschka Fischer, said the Nato deployment was taken with "certain conditions" and, if these changed, this "would have consequences for us". The German Defence Minister, Peter Struck, warned Turkey against boosting troop numbers on the Iraqi border, saying that any such steps would endanger stability in the region.

At a meeting of Nato ambassadors, the Allies accepted Turkey's denials of allegations that 1,000 Turkish commandos crossed into northern Iraq at the weekend. However, Turkey repeated that it reserves the right to send troops to stop a possible refugee flow and prevent instability on its borders.

Meanwhile, the European Commission warned that any Turkish incursion would "bring extra complications" to Ankara's EU membership bid. "Any action by a neighbour [of Iraq] that could destabilise the situation would be most unwelcome," a Commission spokesman, Jean-Christophe Filori, said.