By Saad Abdel Meguid, OIL Turkey Correspondent

ANKARA, October 1 (IslamOnline) - Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz delivered on Tuesday October 1, a message from Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit Turkish and Foreign Minister Sukru Sina Gurel on the "latest developments in the region and the continuing U.S. threats of a new strike against Iraq."

Aziz exhorted the three not to join hands with the American plan to launch an offensive on Iraq to topple President Saddam.

Speaking at a press conference following the talks, Aziz sounded upbeat over the dialogue he held with Turkish officials on U.S. threats against his country.

Baghdad and Ankara share the conviction that American threats are not directed to Iraq alone but to Turkey and other countries in the region, he said.

Aziz urged Ankara to work to thwart U.S. threats, asserting they would harm the Turkish security and economy.

Asked how Iraq would perceive Turkey if it opened up its airspace to U.S. aircraft and allowed the U.S. to use Turkish bases in striking Iraq, Aziz asserted that his country would not surely view Ankara with the same present friendship .

Turkey must not allow such aggression to take place on a neighboring country, said the Iraqi official.

"I am confident that our friends, the Turkish officials, will adopt a stance in accordance with Turkey's interests," he said.

Aziz had arrived in Ankara on Monday October 30, and denied his country could soon develop weapons of mass destruction, saying Washington's claims that Baghdad was a threat were ridiculous.

"London and Washington have made threats on groundless pretexts... To say that Iraq is a threat to the United States is ridiculous," Aziz told reporters at the airport.

"Iraq made a very honest and wise decision to invite the [U.N. arms] inspectors. This proves that Iraq is telling the truth and it does not have weapons of mass destruction," Aziz added.

Aziz’s arrival coincided with a visit by U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Elizabeth Jones, with both countries trying to woo Turkey to its side in their face-off.

Meanwhile, Jones was the first to come courting, holding talks with Gurel and other officials on plans for a tough new U.N. Security Council resolution to ensure Baghdad's compliance with U.N. weapons inspectors.

The return of U.N. arms inspectors to Iraq was important, she said, "but it's not just about getting the inspectors in. It's about getting disarmament in Iraq."

Turkey, a close Muslim ally of Washington and a NATO member, is currently opposed to any military action against its southern neighbor for fear it could exacerbate its own deep economic crisis and destabilize the region.

Turkey provides bases to U.S. and British warplanes tasked with enforcing a northern no-fly zone over Iraq, set up after the 1991 Gulf War but not sanctioned by any U.N. resolution. Its support is seen as crucial to any U.S. military offensive against Iraq.

But the Turkish government publicly voiced its opposition to military moves against Iraq and Ecevit said last week that U.S. and British suspicions that Iraq had the capability to develop nuclear weapons did not justify war.

Ankara fears it could incur significant losses if Washington attacks Iraq at a time when it is trying to overhaul its economy with a multi-billion-dollar loan from the International Monetary Fund.

In their meeting with Jones, Turkish officials listed Ankara's economic concerns, Anatolia news agency reported.

War could raise oil prices, scare off foreign investors, hit tourism, upset internal economic balances and impede border trade in the entire region, Jones was told, according to Anatolia.

Turkey estimates its losses, mainly from the U.N. sanctions imposed on Iraq since its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, at about 45 billion dollars.

According to a report issued Monday by the Turkish-Iraqi Business Council, U.S. military action against Iraq could cost the Turkish economy an additional 20 billion dollars next year.

To confirm Turkey’s position, head of the Ankara Political Researches and Studies (ASAM) Umid Ozdagh said, in an interview with a CNN Turkey political program on Monday September 30, it was unlikely that Turkey would join hands in any ground operation against Iraq.

The United States wants to use the Turkish airspace and the NATO bases in south Turkey and is also seeking Turkish logistic cooperation, he added.

He expressed hic conviction that the United States wants to remain in Iraq for an unspecified period of time with the aim of controlling 8 to 9 percent of the world oil reserves in Iraq.

On reported differences between the military and political wings in Turkey over a possible intervention in Iraq, Ozdagh said he had no confirmed information in this respect.

Retired Ambassador Yaleim Araleb, a current advisor to the Turkish news network, said in the same TV program, said the Turkish forces will enter Iraq in case of a change in the map of internal powers in Iraq.

Any attempt by Kurds in northern Iraq to control Kirkuk town would prompt Turkey to intervene militarily in Iraq to safeguard its supreme interests.

If the Kurds enter Kirkuk, this would mean that the United States have given them the green light as part of a clandestine agreement between the two sides, he said.

Turkey would not stand hand-folded vis-à-vis such a situation, said the former ambassador.

Tension is very high among some Turkish circles because some have began talking about areas where Kurds live in Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Iran and Armenia as the expected borders to what Turkish media describe as the establishment of a Kurdish state, he said.

Turkish parties are seeking to postpone early elections, scheduled for November 3, under pretexts of an imminent military operation on the country’s borders.