Some Fences Mended in Powell's Meeting With Turks

Turkey finally agreed last night to allow the shipment of food, fuel and medicine to American forces fighting in northern Iraq after a damage-limitation meeting between the US secretary of state, Colin Powell, and Turkish leaders in Ankara.

"Our discussions were very productive," Mr Powell said at the end of the first foreign trip by a senior member of the Bush administration since the start of the war.

Mr Powell said supplies destined for the few thousand US troops in northern Iraq will be shipped across the border, which Turkey has kept sealed since the start of the campaign. Before Mr Powell's 24-hour stopover, Turkish-US relations had been said to be at their lowest ebb since the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

US officials, still fuming over the Ankara parliament's refusal to allow 62,000 American troops to use the country as a springboard for an attack against Iraq, have more often described Turkey as a recalcitrant ally in recent weeks than as a long-standing friend. But yesterday the Ankara government went out of its way to smooth over the cracks.

Addressing reporters after his talks with Mr Powell, Turkey's foreign minister, Abdullah Gul, said there would be no need for a new parliamentary resolution to support the measures that had been discussed. Mr Powell said Turkey would not only play an important role in the reconstruction effort in post-war Iraq but was an example of a Muslim democracy living in peace with its neighbours.

Washington has also agreed to cushion Turkey's troubled economy from the negative impact of the war with a $1bn grant, convertible to $8.5bn in loan guarantees.