GULF WAR II: LIVES LOST: We have not sent in troops - Turkey

TURKEY officially denied sending forces into the north of Iraq yesterday as part of plans to subdue the Kurds.

Earlier, military sources said 1,500 commandos had been despatched into the area, provoking fury among US officials.

"The reports are not true," said a Turkish armed forces spokesman.

Kurds in the northern Iraqi enclave, protected since the Gulf War by British and American warplanes in the no-fly zone, also said there had been no crossing by Turkish forces.

However, a rift has opened between the US and Turkey on the northern Iraqi front. The US has abandoned plans to send 62,000 troops into the area after a failure by officials from both governments to reach agreement.

The negotiators fell out after Turkey demanded tacit approval to send in its own forces to keep an eye on Kurdish rebels, in return for allowing US warplanes to use its air space.

"We are disappointed, but it was obvious Turkey wasn't giving us its full cooperation," said one US official in Turkey.

"We've been trying for months to get their approval. It was obvious some time ago that they weren't going to play ball. We hoped to change their minds. In the end it became hopeless."

Turkey will now not receive some $30billion of aid it had been promised for its full cooperation.

Kurds control the territory north of the oil cities of Mosul and Kirkuk to a buffer zone 12 miles from the Turkish border, which runs for 200 miles.

The entire area has been declared a military zone and is off- limits to journalists.

Turkey fears that the Iraqi Kurds intend to create their own state, which will spark a rebellion by Kurds within their own borders. Up to 37,000 Kurds have died in Turkey over the past 15 years in the struggle for autonomy.

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