WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday it would be up to the U.N. Security Council to decide whether to establish a no-fly zone inside Syria and said he backed the involvement of Russia and China in planned peace talks.

Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington a day after discussing Syria with President Barack Obama, Erdogan said a no-fly zone could be discussed at a planned international conference on Syria backed by Washington and Moscow.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Turkey is pushing for involvement in a proposed free trade pact between the United States and Europe which it fears could leave it sidelined and hamper its ambitions to become a top 10 economy over the next decade.

Trade was high on the agenda in a meeting on Thursday between U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish leader is worried a deal could hurt his nation’s commerce with Europe and the United States.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Turkey is pushing for involvement in a proposed free trade pact between the United States and Europe which it fears could leave it sidelined and hamper its ambitions to become a top 10 economy over the next decade.

Trade was high on the agenda in a meeting on Thursday between U.S. President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. The Turkish leader is worried a deal could hurt his nation’s commerce with Europe and the United States.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama said on Thursday he reserved the right to resort to both diplomatic and military options to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but insisted that U.S. action alone would not be enough to resolve the Syrian crisis.

Taking a cautious line at a joint news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, Obama voiced hope that the United States and Russia would succeed in arranging an international peace conference on Syria, despite signs of growing obstacles.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Turkey’s prime minister will push President Barack Obama for more assertive action on Syria during a visit to Washington this week, days after car bombs tore through a Turkish border town in the deadliest spillover of violence yet.

The bombings in Reyhanli, which killed 50 people on Saturday, and activists’ reports of a massacre of Sunni Muslims in a Syrian coastal town have incensed Tayyip Erdogan, already critical of the slow international response to the conflict.

ISTANBUL, May 10 (Reuters) – Ukraine is optimistic that it
will sign a $15 billion loan deal with the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) in the near future after positive talks,
Finance Minister Yuri Kolobov told Reuters on Friday.

“The (view) of both sides is that the negotiations are very
fruitful and that in the nearest future both sides are
interested in signing this agreement,” Kolobov said on the
sidelines of a European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
conference in Istanbul.

ISTANBUL, May 10 (Reuters) – Oil-rich Kazakhstan will return
to global bond markets this year with an issue of up to $1
billion and has invited banks to apply to manage the deal,
Finance Minister Bolat Zhamishev said on Friday.

Kazakhstan has one of the lowest public debt ratios in
emerging markets and its last sovereign Eurobond matured in
2007. Zhamishev said a new bond would be aimed at creating a
benchmark for corporate borrowers.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Syria’s neighbors, wary of stirring a conflict that could spill back over their borders, would be reluctant partners in a U.S.-led intervention but are ultimately likely to support limited military action if widespread use of chemical weapons is proven.

The White House disclosed U.S. intelligence on Thursday that Syria had likely used chemical weapons, a move President Barack Obama had said could trigger unspecified consequences, widely interpreted to include possible U.S. military action.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Syria’s opposition outlined its vision for an era after President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday, rejecting “all forms of terrorism” and vowing to keep weapons out of the “wrong hands” in a nod to the demands of its Western backers.

After six hours of meetings in a palace on the shores of the Bosphorus in Istanbul, the declaration by the main opposition Syrian National Coalition was welcomed by allies including the United States and Britain.

ISTANBUL, April 20 (Reuters) – Syrian opposition figures
voiced frustration with their international backers on Saturday
in the face of reluctance from some to supply the rebels with
weapons and a call for them to distance themselves from
extremist forces.

Speaking at a meeting of the Friends of Syria in Istanbul,
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Germany was
sceptical about supplying weapons to the rebels but said the
subject should be discussed by the European Union.