JERUSALEM, Feb 1 (AFP) - Israeli army chief of staff Moshe Yaalon was heading to Ankara Tuesday for a two-day visit as part of deepening ties the Jewish state and its main ally in the Muslim world.
An official statement said Yaalon would hold talks during his visit with Turkish counterpart Hilmi Ozkok and Defence Minister Zecdi Gonul.
"This visit is being held to strengthen the security and military contacts and cooperation between the Turkish army and the Israeli army," the statement said.
His trip comes after a report Monday in the Israeli daily Haaretz that officials held talks last week in Ankara about possible defence deals worth 1.5 billion dollars which would see Israel upgrade the Turkish air force's ageing fleet of F-4 Phantom planes.
Turkey, a strictly secular country with a Muslim majority population, infuriated Arab nations in 1996 when it struck a military cooperation accord with the Jewish state.
Ties took a battering in May last year when Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan condemned as "state terror" a deadly Israeli raid on the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza and Ankara temporarily recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv.
However a visit by Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul to Israel last month appears to have drawn a line under a period of tension between the traditional allies.
02/01/2005 07:42 GMT - AFP