Turkey, Israel, US maintain military ties

The Turkish Ministry of Defense has asked the Israeli Air Industries company, producing the early warning Falcon systems, and three US companies which produces AWACS planes to present bids for setting up an early warning project at a cost of US $850 million.

The project was described as consolidating Turkey's monitoring capabilities against Greece in the Aegean sea.

On Saturday, the Turkish Daily News said that Turkey would actually buy four AWACS planes and ground stations which are to be delivered in 2003.

Meanwhile, in its Saturday issue the French "Very Urgent" news bulletin said that the Israeli army carried out on May 18 a successful testing of a laser battery. The bulletin quoted Israeli sources as saying that the US will deliver Israel batteries of this kind to enable it to confront Katyusha rockets in south Lebanon.

This bid falls within the Israeli army's strategy to step up monitoring equipment in the region.