ISTANBUL (AFP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad flew into Turkey on Thursday for two days of talks on bilateral ties and Tehran's controversial nuclear programme.
Ahmadinejad is scheduled to hold talks with President Abdullah Gul later Thursday and with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Friday on his first ever bilateral visit to a NATO-member country.
He will also address a businessmen's meeting Friday before leaving.
The talks are expected to focus on ways to develop closer cooperation between the two neighbours as well as the mounting tension over Iran's nuclear drive which the West suspects is a cover for secretly developing an atomic bomb.
Iran is refusing to halt its uranium enrichment activities even though it is facing a fresh round of sanctions after failing to give a clear response to an incentives package offered by six world powers.
Turkey, which has significantly improved relations with Iran in recent years, believes it can help resolve the stand-off through its close ties both with its eastern neighbour and Western powers.
Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan announced last month that Ankara was taking on an informal role "of consolidation and facilitation" regarding the nuclear talks, at the request of the parties involved.
Ahmedinejad's visit, however, has drawn the ire of Turkey's ally Israel which has warned Ankara against "giving legitimacy" to a leader who has called for the destruction of the Jewish state.
Non-Arab secular Turkey has been Israel's main regional ally since 1996, when the two signed a military cooperation accord, much to the anger of Arab countries and Iran.
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