The announcement came at the end of a meeting that included the leaders of Turkey's new government, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, and top generals.

The United States has repeatedly called on Turkey's government to quickly resubmit to parliament a failed resolution that would allow the deployment of some 62,000 US soldiers for an invasion of the majority Kurdish northern Iraq if there is a war.

Secretary of State Colin Powell said on Sunday that Washington has not given up on Turkey as a springboard for American forces in a war against Iraq even though the Turkish parliament so far has rejected the idea.

Powell said new Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will resubmit the proposal to parliament but the timing was uncertain.

An official statement released after the meeting referred to an earlier meeting of Turkey's top political and military leaders that called on parliament to take steps to let in foreign troops.

It did not mention the parliamentary resolution, which would have to be passed to let in the US forces.

When asked when parliament would resubmit a new resolution, presidential spokesman Tacan Ildem said: "Our government will make the necessary evaluation urgently."

"A unanimous decision was reached ... that there is a need to move urgently," he added.

The Turkish government has delayed resubmitting a new resolution and Erdogan earlier had indicated that any new vote on the deployment would be at least another week away.

(China Daily March 18, 2003)