Turkish lawmakers yesterday overwhelmingly approved a U.S. request to send peacekeeping troops to neighboring Iraq, despite the deep misgivings of senior members of the U.S.-appointed Iraqi Governing Council.

The 358-183 vote in the Turkish parliament seemed certain to improve ties with Washington that were badly strained by Turkey's failure to back President Bush in the war to oust Saddam Hussein...

..."The Governing Council's stand is against the presence of troops from neighboring countries without exception, and Turkey is one of these countries," said Nabeil al-Moussawi of the Iraqi National Congress (INC), whose head Ahmad Chalabi had been a leading U.S. ally in the run-up to the war and now sits on the IGC.

"We believe any interference from a neighboring country, either north, south, west or east, is unacceptable," Mouwafak Al-Rabii, a Shi'ite council member and longtime human rights activist, told reporters in Baghdad. "This interference is unacceptable."...