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Turkish prime minister visits Israel

JERUSALEM - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Israel on Sunday for a visit seeking to mend relations with the Jewish state and join in a new wave of Middle East peace efforts.

Israel and Turkey, an overwhelmingly Muslim state, have long had strong military ties and important trade links. But relations grew strained last year when Erdogan, whose party has its roots in Turkey's Islamic movement, strongly criticized Israel's treatment of the Palestinians.

Erdogan's trip marks the second time a Turkish prime minister has visited Israel.

Erdogan, accompanied by top officials and business leaders, was to meet Sunday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, President Moshe Katsav and other Israeli leaders. He planned to sign a research and development agreement with Israel.

Leaders from the two countries also were expected to work on a roughly $400-million deal to have Israel upgrade 30 of Turkey's F-4 Phantom jets.

Today, Erdogan is to head to the West Bank city of Ramallah for meetings with Palestinian leaders.

In a gesture ahead of Erdogan's trip, Turkey gave the Palestinian Authority the title deeds of lands and property in the West Bank and Gaza it had acquired during the nearly 400-year rule of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish daily Milliyet reported Sunday.

Turkey handed over 140,000 pages of deeds covering the years 1500 to 1914, the paper said.

Milliyet also reported that Turkey has sent 25,000 police uniforms to the Palestinian security forces.

JERUSALEM - Israeli troops staged a brief raid Sunday into Tulkarem, re-entering the northern West Bank town for the first time since returning it to Palestinian control in March. Palestinian officials condemned the incursion as a violation of agreements between the two sides.

Palestinian security officials said Israeli special forces arrested 18-year-old Mohammed Shalhoub.

Israeli military officials said Shalhoub was an Islamic Jihad militant preparing an imminent suicide attack against Israelis and had already filmed the video testament often left by suicide bombers.

Israeli military officials said the agreement gave Israel the right to re-enter Palestinian territory in cases where a Palestinian attack was imminent.

[Last modified May 2, 2005, 01:42:09]