US invasion has turned Iraq into terrorist training ground: Turkish PM
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-08 15:33

Turkey's prime minister has criticised military solutions to the so-called "war on terror", saying the US-led invasion of Iraq had transformed the country into a training ground for extremists.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of Turkey's first Islamist government, said military action was not an effective way to combat militants.

He said global defence budgets totalled one trillion US dollars annually, with only a fraction of that amount spent trying to eradicate extremism's root causes such as poverty, ignorance and religious intolerance.

In the first visit to Australia by a Turkish leader, Erdogan's remarks that militarism had failed in Iraq implicitly challenged Canberra's strong commitment to the US-led campaign in the war-torn Middle Eastern country.

"Militaristic approaches are not a solution in and of themselves," Erdogan said through a translator at a function held in his honour in Canberra.

"At the moment, Iraq has become a training ground for terrorism.

"As to whether a solution has been found to the situation in Iraq, we can say that that solution has not been found because tens of people die every day in Iraq, unfortunately."

Erdogan, whose government sent troops into neighbouring Iraq in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion, said shared intelligence was the key to preventing extremist attacks.

"We must make sure that we dry up the swamp of terrorism and we must have a lot of intelligence sharing in order to achieve that. That is how we can combat terrorism," he said.

"I believe it can be done provided we do not refrain from sharing intelligence."

He said terrorism would remain a threat until its underlying causes were dealt with.

"How much did we spend on eradicating poverty or ignorance?" he asked.

"Is there any spending in this area? No. Nothing on the scale of the problem.

"Even in the times of earthquakes, people are reluctant to send aid but earthquakes can affect anyone."

Ergodan will remain in Australia until Sunday.