A statement from the general staff said that the 204 unarmed Hummer jeeps had been sent to Turkey within the framework of Ankara's permission for the United States to upgrade Turkish air bases and ports in preparation of a war against Iraq.

But, the statement said, it had become impossible to use the vehicles in Turkey after lawmakers on March 1 narrowly voted down a US request to deploy 62,000 troops here to invade Iraq from the north.

"In line with the approval of a request by the US, these vehicles have been in shipment to northern Iraq for sometime in batches," the army statement read.

"No other weapons, military supplies or equipment have been shipped," it added.

The army statement coincided with a one-day visit to Ankara by US Secretary of State Colin Powell, during which the two sides agreed on the transfer of supplies to US troops in northern Iraq through Turkey.

But the general staff denied that the shipment of the jeeps was related to Powell's trip.

The United States was forced to airlift troops to Kurdish-held northern Iraq after Ankara rebuffed Washington's demands for its troops to use Turkish territory as a launching pad for attacks on Iraq.

Turkey later opened its airspace to US warplanes for overflights.

SPACE.WIRE