Turkey's parliament has narrowly failed to approve the deployment of US troops on its territory for a possible war with neighbouring Iraq. The vote came amid mounting pressure from Washington.

MPs voted 264-250 in favour of the deployment. However, the motion required more than half of those present in the chamber to approve it.

The motion - if passed in another vote scheduled on 4 March - would also authorise the government to send Turkish troops to Kurdish-populated northern Iraq in the event of war.

The US urgently wants to deploy 62,000 troops and more than 250 planes in Turkey as part of its military plans against Iraq.

Opinion polls show that 80% of Turks oppose war. On Saturday, tens of thousands of protesters, from academics to family parties, turned out in central Ankara. They chanted "No War" and "We don't want to be America's soldiers".