Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's defense spokesman stressed Saturday the importance of Israel's relations with Turkey, with which Israel has had a military cooperation agreement for the past four years.
David Ziso, speaking in advance of Barak's one-day visit to Turkey on Monday, said "Israel attaches great importance to its relations with Ankara."
He said this is underlined by the fact that Barak will travel to Turkey less than three weeks after acting Israeli foreign minister Shlomo Ben Ami went to explain Israel's position following the collapse of the Camp David peace summit.
Barak, who is also Israel's defense minister, is set to meet Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, Foreign Minister Ismail Cem and defense officials.
His meetings will center on the Middle East peace process and on increasing civilian and military cooperation between the two countries, his office said earlier this week.
Despite the fact that Israeli public radio Saturday forecast that the question of military cooperation will be at the center of the talks, Ziso did not elaborate on what would be discussed in that area.
However, on the non-military front, Ziso said there would be further discussions on Israeli plans to buy drinking water from Turkey, following an accord signed in June.
Israel, which is Turkey's main regional ally, is seeking to import the water from the Manavgat River, which flows to the Mediterranean near the port of Antalya.
Turkey has built facilities there with the aim of exporting 180 million cubic meters (6.3 billion cubic feet) of water annually using tanker ships.
At the same time, a Turkish newspaper has reported that Turkey has concluded a 274-million-dollar deal with Israel Aircraft Industries for the construction of Turkey's first spy satellite.
There were no details on what elements of the Middle East peace process would be discussed.
On Wednesday, Cem met with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat during a brief visit to the Gaza Strip.
He said Turkey, which maintains relations with both Israel and the Palestinians, "could make an important contribution" to bringing about peace in Middle East, adding that "we hope that this process will have a happy ending."
Israel and Turkey have been allied since they signed a military cooperation agreement in February 1996, a move that has annoyed both the Arab countries and Iran, who see this as a threat to them - OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP)
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