All news

UN chief to Turkey this weekend

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 30, 2007 (AFP) - UN chief Ban Ki-moon is to travel to Turkey this weekend to attend a ministerial meeting of countries neighboring Iraq, a UN spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The focus of the meeting in Istanbul on Saturday "will be on ways to promote greater regional dialogue and strengthen the work of the three regional working groups" on refugees and displaced people, border security and energy, spokeswoman Marie Okabe said.

The visit comes amid growing tensions over Turkish warnings of an incursion against Kurdish militants in north Iraq.

Turkey has threatened a major cross-border assault on bases of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in the remote mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan if Baghdad and Washington fail to make good on promises to crack down on the rebels.

The Istanbul meeting, organized by Iraq and Turkey, will be held along the lines of a similar ministerial meeting held in May in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to attend the meeting scheduled for November 2-3.

At the Sharm el-Sheikh in May, participants approved by consensus a five-year plan aimed at stabilizing Iraq known as the "International Compact."

The ICI is an initiative drafted by the United Nations, World Bank and Baghdad aimed at stabilising Iraq on the political, economic and security levels.

Foreign ministers and top diplomats from more than 50 countries attended the two-day Sharm el-Sheikh meeting.