Istanbul - The influence of the US and the EU in the Middle East and the Caucasus is dwindling, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Friday.

Speaking on the edges of the World Economic Forum meeting in Istanbul, Mottaki said the most recent Western attempts to intervene in the Caucasus following August's war in Georgia were "fruitless."

Regional efforts to solve the crisis would function better without them, he said.

"Perhaps what has recently occurred in Lebanon could serve as a model for the solution of conflicts by countries from within the region," said Mottaki.

Ankara - Turkey has revised upwards its inflation estimates for 2008, with Central Bank Governor Durmus Yilmaz saying recent falls in the Turkish lira amid the global economic crisis had contributed to the rise in inflation.

Speaking in Ankara, Yilmaz said inflation was expected to rise to 11.1 per cent by the end of 2008, an increase of 0.5 percent from mid- year forecasts, and a full 7.1 percentage points higher than the government's initial inflation target for 2008 of 4 per cent.

Yilmaz told reporters that the recent slide in the value of the lira had increased inflationary pressures.

Istanbul - Isolating Iran and Syria is a misguided strategy, said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Thursday during an opening speech at the World Economic Forum in Istanbul.

"Dialogue between countries in the region is better than pressure from outside," he said.

Though his speech did not name the United States specifically, his comments were considered to be aimed directly as US policy.

Ankara - Pakistan and Afghanistan leaders on Thursday reiterated their pledges to cooperate towards promoting peace, security, stability and economic development in the region.

Ankara - The Istanbul trial of 86 alleged coup plotters hit a delay Monday when one of the accused insisted that the entire 2,455-page indictment be read out in court, CNN-Turk television reported.

The broadcaster reported that the demand for a full reading came from just one defendant exercising his right to have the entire indictment read. The process is likely to take up to 10 days.

Ankara - Turkish military police Saturday detained 88 foreigners found packed inside the back of a truck just outside Ankara, the Anadolu news agency reported.

Gendarmes, military police responsible for security in rural areas, discovered the would-be migrants during a routine traffic inspection in the district of Elmadag.