Germany said on Saturday it would withdraw its crew members from NATO surveillance planes patrolling Turkish airspace if Turkey moves its troopssintosIraq.

　　The threat, issued by Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and Defense Minister Peter Struck following a meeting of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Security Cabinet, came as the Turkish military denied reports that some 1,000 Turkish commandos had crossedsintosnorthern Iraq.

　　Belgian Foreign Minister Louis Michel yesterday said Belgium too would withdraw its crew members from NATO surveillance planes patrolling Turkish airspace if Turkey moves its troopssintosIraq.

　　Michel also warned that any Turkish military incursionssintosnorthern Iraq could damage its attempts to join the European Union.

　　Germany has staunchly opposed military action in Iraq. Schroeder has said the AWACS flights over Turkey are covered by Germany's obligations to defend a NATO ally and would not be used to support a war.

　　The 19-nation alliance has four surveillance planes in Turkey, helping to defend the country in case Iraqi forces launch retaliatory strikes against it.

　　"If Turkey becomes a party to the war, that would create a new situation, which under the policy we have held for months would lead to the withdrawal of German soldiers from the NATO AWACS aircraft," Fischer told reporters. "We will not participate in a war."

　　However, he said Germany's foreign intelligence service so far has no indication of any "significant change in the presence of Turkish troops in northern Iraq."

　　Struck said the withdrawal threat also applied to German Patriot missiles that have been handed over to the Netherlands for use in Dutch Patriot batteries in Turkey, arguing that the conditions for their deployment were "similar" to those of the AWACS crews.

　　The government has not specified how many Germans are manning the AWACS planes. Officials at NATO refused to comment on the issue on Saturday.

　　Given that Turkey is a NATO ally, "it would be difficult to say we're not going along with this any more," conceded Gernot Erler, the deputy leader in parliament of Schroeder's Social Democrats. "We would have to have a convincing reason to do it."

　　"Unfortunately, this convincing reason could now arise very quickly," Erler told Radio Eins.

　　An opposition party unhappy that parliament was not consulted on allowing German soldiers to man the surveillance flights along Turkey's border with Iraq said it had taken its com-plaint to Germany's highest court.