ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey agreed Wednesday to open its territory to shipments of fuel, food, water and medicine for U.S. soldiers in Iraq and to flights evacuating their wounded -- but not the passage of weapons or troops.
In turn, U.S. Secretary of State Colin L. Powell promised Turkey an important role in rebuilding Iraq after the war and said Turkey's new commitment to the war effort could help overcome congressional opposition to $1 billion in proposed U.S. aid.
But Powell's hastily arranged visit to the Turkish capital, aimed at mending a deep rift between two longtime NATO allies over the war, fell short of winning what U.S. officials most wanted: a guarantee that Turkish troops would not invade northern Iraq and clash with the United States' Kurdish allies there.
Instead, Turkish leaders promised to try to coordinate any military moves with U.S. commanders, and the two sides agreed on a set of "early warning" signals that would prompt discussion about whether Turkish troops should intervene.
Repairing relations has become a priority for leaders of both countries, with anger over the war rising in the Islamic world and Turkey desperately needing U.S. aid.
The help Turkey promised Wednesday is far more modest than what the Bush administration first sought -- permission to deploy 62,000 U.S. troops through Turkey to attack Baghdad from the north. The parliament's rejection of that request March 1 sent U.S.-Turkish relations to their lowest point in decades and forced the United States to reroute the 4th Infantry Division into Iraq from the south. The unit has not entered combat yet.
Turkish leaders, elected in November, have complained bitterly that the administration lobbied them too aggressively, demanded more than they could deliver and misread the depth of antiwar sentiment here. It was only after the war began that Turkey opened its airspace for U.S. strikes on Iraq. But the Turks still refused to allow U.S. warplanes to use bases on their territory for combat missions as they had during the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
The denial of Turkish territory as a base for military operations -- especially for the 4th Infantry's planned march into northern Iraq -- struck the Bush administration as a stinging setback. Washington had viewed Turkey as its most steadfast military ally in the Muslim world.
Powell and his Turkish counterpart, Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, took pains Wednesday to put those strains behind them.
