US arming of Kurds is a relic of Obama era, says Erdogan

Turkey's president on Friday insisted that a US decision this week to arm Kurdish militias in northern Syria was a hangover policy of the Obama administration, days before he was due to meet the new US President Donald Trump.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the US was still going through a "transition period" and said his visit to the White House on Monday would mark a "new beginning" in relations.

His comments come days after Trump signed an order to supply the YPG militia with heavy weapons to aid their forthcoming attack on the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa. Turkey views the YPG as an arm of the PKK, an internationally designated "terrorist" organisation that has fought a decades-long war inside Turkey for Kurdish recognition.

There are certain moves in the US coming from the past, such as the weapons assistance to the YPG

- Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Erdogan repeated Ankara's criticism of Trump's decision, saying it ran counter to the two countries' strategic interests - but also sought to portray it as a relic of the Obama administration's Middle East policy.

"The United States is still going through a transition period. And we have to be more careful and sensitive," he told a news conference in Ankara.

"Right now there are certain moves in the United States coming from the past, such as the weapons assistance to the YPG," Erdogan said.

"These are developments that are in contradiction to our strategic relations with the United States and of course we don't want this to happen."

Erdogan said he did not want to see "a terrorist organisation alongside the United States", and that Turkey would continue military operations against Kurdish militia targets in Iraq and Syria.

He also said he would pursue "to the end" Turkey's demand for the extradition of the US-based Islamic cleric Fethullah Gulen who Ankara says was behind a failed military coup last July. That was followed by a purge of tens of thousands of Turkish state employees accused of links to Gulen, who has denied any involvement in the coup attempt.

But the tone of Erdogan's comments, four days before he is due in Washington to meet Trump, contrasted with angry rebukes from Ankara earlier this week, when the foreign minister said every weapon sent to the YPG was a threat to Turkey while the defence minister described the move as a crisis.

Erdogan, who had a fraught relationship with former president Barack Obama, said his meeting with Trump next week would be decisive. "I actually see this US visit as a new beginning in our ties," he said.

Trump's defence secretary, Jim Mattis, met Turkey's prime minister, Binali Yildirim, in London on Thursday. Mattis said he had no doubt the two countries could work through the tensions caused by the decision to arm the YPG.

A US official also told the Reuters news agency that the US was looking to boost intelligence cooperation with Turkey to support its fight against the PKK.

Asked about US pledges of support, Erdogan suggested he will seek further guarantees when he meets Trump.

"Among the information we have received, there is some that satisfy us and others that are not sufficient," he said.