He held out Turkey as a model for the Middle East as he met with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the start of an official visit to Turkey a day before a summit in Istanbul of the 26-member Nato alliance.

Bush, on his first-ever trip ever to Turkey, ignored reporters' questions about the capture in Iraq of three Turkish workers by supporters of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian-born terrorist believed to have ties to al-Qaeda, who kidnapped three Turkish workers in Iraq and threatened to behead them within 72 hours.

A White House spokesman, Sean McCormack, said: "We're in close contact with the Turkish government on the issue. It is an awful reminder of the barbaric nature of these terrorists but their acts will not shake the will of free people everywhere."

Bush said his visit to Turkey would focus on ways to strengthen Nato, which he is pushing to take a greater military role in Iraq.

"I will remind people of this good country that I believe you ought to be given a date by the EU for your eventual acceptance into the EU," he said.

Bush said he and Erdogan would discuss "matters regarding the neighborhood Iraq and elsewhere."

During stops in Ankara and Istanbul through Tuesday, Bush hopes his Nato allies will formally agree to train Iraqi security forces. And the president is hoping his talks with Turkish leaders will smooth America's partnership with the only Muslim nation in the Western alliance.

Distrust of US policy in Iraq reaches from the streets to the halls of government. While politicians here support the war, they worry that if the new government in Baghdad collapses it will destabilise Iraq, Turkey's neighbor to the south.

Nato nations tentatively agreed Saturday to respond to interim Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi's urgent request for military training and equipment. The agreement is expected to be finalized when Bush attends a Nato summit in Istanbul that ends tomorrow, a day before the transfer of political power in Iraq.

The Nato offer would be a boost for the United States, which has sought a wider role by the alliance in Iraq. However, it falls short of earlier US hopes that Nato would deploy troops to help restore order there. Sixteen of the 26 Nato members have individually sent forces to help the US-led coalition.

"Nato has the capability and I believe the responsibility to help the Iraqi people defeat the terrorist threat that's facing their country," Bush said Saturday following a US-European Union summit in Ireland.