Council Of Ministers Convenes In Ankara

ANKARA - Turkey's Deputy Premier said on Monday that it would be advantageous to reassess and improve the relations between Turkey and Iraq.
Delivering a statement after the Council of Ministers meeting held in capital Ankara, Deputy Premier and State Minister Cemil Cicek said that Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan's recent visit to Iraq was on the agenda of the meeting.
Expressing the importance Turkey attaches to Iraq, Cicek said "the developments that took place in Iraq affected Turkey remarkably as well".
Commenting on the "Union for Mediterranean" meeting held in Paris and Erdogan's talks with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Cicek said the relations between Turkey and France could be reviewed thanks to Erdogan's visit.
"During the meeting, a mutual and wide-scale evaluation was made on how the relations between the two countries would develop in the future," Cicek said.
Cicek also said that the Council of Ministers decided to increase the pensions of the retired laborers and pensioners of Social Security Organization for Artisans & the Self-Employed (Bag-Kur) by 7.2 percent in the second half of 2008.
(DO-EÖ)
(GEN)