US concerns over allowing Turkish troops to enter Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq were expected to figure high on the agenda of the one-day visit during which Powell was due to meet first with his counterpart Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, followed by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, armed forces chief of staff General Hilmi Ozkok and other top military and government officials.

Just minutes before Powell arrived at the Turkish foreign ministry for his talks with Gul, riot police arrested some 50 anti-war protestors who had been shouting "Get out of Turkey" and "US murderer."

Powell, who arrived in Turkey late Tuesday, was to have a busy schedule of meetings before traveling to Belgrade for a brief stopover in the Balkans, and then Brussels for discussions on Iraq with NATO and EU ministers.

Washington's plans to deploy tens of thousands of US soldiers to Turkey, to aid in setting up a northern front in its war on Iraq, were rendered moot after parliament narrowly rebuffed the US request last month, angering the US government.

Powell told journalists while on his way to Ankara the United States now wanted Turkey to support US military operations in northern Iraq.

"We are not looking at the kind of requests that we were looking at a month or so ago... these are requests having to do with just sustaining the operations in northern Iraq, and it should not be difficult for the Turks to accommodate."

But he said there was still a "level of disappointment" in the United States over Turkey's failure to allow the deployment to go ahead.

"We are looking for a spirit of accommodation. We are not looking for divisions to come or anything like that," said Powell.

"If we get full cooperation in the days ahead, especially in the aftermath of the operation Iraqi freedom and full support for humanitarian efforts as well as support of troops that are now in northern Iraq, I think this will help," Powell added.

But Ankara is also keen on sending further troops into northern Iraq, where it fears Kurds could proclaim independence. That in turn could set a dangerous example to Turkey's own large Kurdish population on the other side of the border, itself the target of a bloody separatist uprising during the 1980s and 90s that left tens of thousands dead.

Washington, for its part, is anxious to prevent any confrontation emerging between Turkey and the Kurds, which would distract from its main aim of removing Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from office.

Diplomats say the thorny issue of a divided Cyprus and Turkey's bid to join the European Union were also to come up during Powell's daylong visit.

The secretary of state, after touching down briefly in Belgrade to express support for the Balkan country following the assassination last month of prime minister Zoran Djindjic, late Wednesday then goes on to Brussels to confront another, far bigger rift -- strained US-EU relations over Iraq.

SPACE.WIRE