Abizaid went to Ankara for his first foreign trip since taking up his post

US ambassador to Turkey Robert Pearson said the issue was discussed by General John Abiziad, the new head of US Central Command which oversees US troops in Iraq, and the Turkish Armed Forces chief, General Hilmo Ozkok.

The generals did not say after the talks whether US troops would back Turkish military operations against the Kurdish militants from the PKK, whom Washington regards as terrorists.

Correspondents say the talks was also an apparent effort to ease the recently strained relations between the two Nato allies.

Turkish-American relations have never been so low in recent memory Henri Barkey, Lehigh University in Pennsylvania

A statement by the Turkish military said the generals also discussed other forms of military co-operation, including plans to set up an international peacekeeping force in Iraq.

The statement came a day after US General James Jones, Supreme Commander of Allied forces in Europe, held separate talks in the Turkish capital.

No details of his meeting has been released.

But the BBC's regional analyst Pam O'Toole says if the two meetings are the beginning of a fence-mending exercise, there is a lot to repair.

Military friction

She says the tension which began when the Turkish parliament voted not to allow American troops to use its territory to open a second front in the Iraqi war has been heightened by a series of subsequent incidents.

Many Turks were furious at the US after the detentions in Iraq

"Turkish-American relations have never been so low in recent memory," says Henri Barkey of Lehigh University in Pennsylvania.

"But what's interesting is that the problem between the Turks and the Americans is not between the two governments as much as it is between the two militaries.

"The American Government is particularly upset at the way the Turkish military has behaved during the Iraq war and subsequently."

The BBC analyst says there are certainly plenty of military issues to discuss.

She says the two sides are keen to smooth over the after-effects of a major row which erupted after American forces arrested 11 members of Turkey's special forces in largely Kurdish Northern Iraq earlier this month.