Babacan: Every Day Is Important For United States

ANKARA - State Minister Ali Babacan said on Monday that the U.S. officials put a pressure on the time regarding a possible operation against Iraq.
Replying questions of reporters, Babacan said, ''the U.S. officials stated in every meeting that every day is important for the United States but not as strict as reflected in the newspapers.''
Military plans of the U.S. officials take time, Babacan noted.
Babacan said that the U.S. officials stated that the sooner Turkey made a decision, the better it would be for them.
''We dwelled on February 18 because this date had earlier been brought onto the agenda,'' said Babacan.
Babacan stated that taking a decision on February 18 did not seem likely and that making a decision was linked with the result of the deliberations.
''We want clear and well-defined documents which will not cause any doubts. But, we don't want to make a decision about such an issue of historic importance without discussing these documents with the ministers and parliamentarians. A clear document has to be submitted to parliament and ministers,'' said Babacan.
When asked about the amount of the loan demanded from the United States, Babacan said that the issue was multi-dimensional and added, ''whether it will be a donation or loan, military or political is an issue closely mingled with each other.''
Asked if deliberations were cut, Babacan said that there was not any bottleneck in the negotiation process and deliberations continued.
Economic, political and military issues were taken up, Babacan pointed out. He said, ''the negotiation process is important and it has historic importance. We are experiencing a difficult and complicated process. It is difficult and wrong to mention any figure when there are many unknowns in Iraqi issue.''
When he was reminded about different amounts of loan, Babacan said, ''it is very natural to mention very different figures because all of them are speculative. I read something on the internet. It was claimed that the cost of the United States in this war would be between 100 billion and 2 trillion U.S. dollars.''
Asked if the U.S. assistance would come via International Monetary Fund (IMF), Babacan said that this did not have any connection with the IMF.
Babacan pointed out that deliberations with the IMF continued and reminded that the primary surplus target could not been reached the previous year.
It seemed difficult to reach the target in one month, Babacan said. Noting that it was so natural to have long deliberations with the IMF, Babacan stated that the IMF brought forth different proposals during their talks.
Babacan said, ''as the government, we are doing everything we believe is right. But, we cannot implement policies which we believe are wrong. This is so natural. I guess that we can reach somewhere with the IMF in a short time. I will have a meeting with the bureaucrats this evening.''