TURKEY has just days to agree to give access for American troops fighting a war against Iraq or it will lose a $26 billion (£16.3 billion) US aid package, the White House signalled yesterday.

Turning the screw on Ankara, President Bush’s spokesman, Ari Fleischer, said: “It’s decision time for Turkey. It will be settled one way or another rather soon.”

Washington has become increasingly alarmed at Turkey’s decision to step up its financial demands in return for opening its military bases to American troops.

A vote in Turkey which was expected to clear the way was delayed yesterday and Ankara dispatched a new demand for financial compensation while Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK), heightened tensions further when he warned Washington that it could not take its Nato ally’s support for granted.

The Turks are demanding not only a substantially increased aid package, but also clearance to follow invading American troops into northern Iraq to secure the country’s southern borders, which are home to dissident Kurdish groups seeking a state of their own.

“Our American friends should not consider the decision made by parliament on modernising bases and ports means we have set off on an irreversible path of support,” Mr Erdogan said. “If we are going to work together, if our support has meaning for the United States, then the United States needs to keep in mind our sensitivities and greet our requests with goodwill.”

Politicians say that a written agreement on economic compensation would be needed before MPs could be persuaded to vote against their own wishes and defy the public mood that has become more strongly anti-war. The latest polls indicate that opposition to an Iraqi war has gone up from 80 per cent to nearer 95 per cent.

The refusal of Turkish officials to agree to the deal put on the table by Mr Bush during White House talks on Friday has forced the Pentagon to consider rewriting its war plans, which are heavily based on a northern assault towards Baghdad from Turkey.

In a display of brinkmanship, US officials suggested they would simply write Turkey out of Washington’s war script, and keep the $26 billion. Although that would complicate the Pentagon’s war plans, officials say it would not reduce the effectiveness of the US military on the ground. But the Pentagon needs to know within days whether there will be a northern front, or if it needs to change tack.

In diplomatic terms, though, the co-operation of Turkey, one of America’s closest Muslim allies, remains critical.

Mr Bush held out an olive branch yesterday, saying he had “great respect” for the Turkish Government. “They have got no better friend than the American Government, and hopefully we can come up with an agreement that’s satisfactory to both parties. We’re still working on it.”

A Western diplomat in Ankara said: “There are ships on the way here with troops on board and they have to decide where to go. They won’t wait long, the situation is now or never as far as Turkey is concerned. It was emphasised over and over that February 18 was an important date.”

When the Turkish parliament voted earlier this month to let the US modernise bases and ports in Turkey for possible use in a war, a second vote on troop deployment seemed a formality, albeit one that Turkish leaders would delay until after last week’s Muslim Eid ul-Adha holiday. A visit by Turkey’s foreign and economy ministers to Washington at the weekend was seen as the final step in tying up an economic package to compensate Turkey for war-related losses.

Senior American officials, including President Bush, made the Turks their final offer, which Western diplomats and Turkish officials put at $6 billion of grants and up to $20 billion in credit, and urged an immediate decision. However, diplomats say that Ankara is holding out for $10 billion in grants, $15 billion in credits and loans and an additional $6.8 billion in forgiveness of military debts.

As the diplomat said: “That’s some difference . . . and I’m not sure how it will be overcome given that President Bush was very clear that Washington had offered all it can . . . Turkey knows perfectly well that it will suffer economically whether or not it joins in a war. If there is no agreement, it stands to lose billions of dollars and receive nothing.”

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