Ozal meets Iraqi rebels

Istanbul - President Turgut Ozal of Turkey yesterday met an Iraqi opposition coalition that Kurdish leaders hope to set up as a US-backed provisional government in northern Iraq, writes Hugh Pope.

Shia, Sunni and Kurdish leaders from Iraq took part. Mr Ozal said Turkey wanted Iraq to stay a unitary state. He wants to block the emergence of an independent Kurdish state that might inflame an ethnic Kurdish rebellion in south-eastern Turkey, although he likes the idea of a Turkish-dominated zone in northern Iraq.