ISTANBUL - Turkey has no plans to send combat troops to Afghanistan despite a US call for NATO allies to beef up their military presence there, President Abdullah Gul said Wednesday.
"We have no intention to send a combat force" to Afghanistan, Gul told reporters before flying to Romania for a NATO summit, the Anatolia news agency reported.
"However, our policy of expanding our relations with Afghanistan ... and increasing our assistance will continue," he said.
Mounting instability in southern Afghanistan, where Canadian, British and US troops have suffered significant casualties against the Taliban, is high on the agenda of a NATO summit in Bucharest.
US President George W. Bush warned earlier Wednesday that "innocent civilians will pay the price" if NATO fails to send more troops to the country.
Turkey, which has had historically close ties with Afghanistan, has twice led the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force there.
It increased the number of its soldiers, stationed in Kabul, to 1,150 last year. The contingent is involved only in peacekeeping missions.
General Yasar Buyukanit, the Turkish chief of general staff, has said he is against sending combat troops to Afghanistan because the army is already busy fighting separatist Kurdish rebels in southeast Turkey.
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