'Turkey, US ready to work on ousting IS'

Washington and Ankara are ready to work together to push Islamic State jihadists out of their de facto capital of Raqa in northern Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in comments published yesterday.

Erdogan said he had agreed with President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in China to do "what is necessary" to drive IS out of Raqa.

"Raqa is the most important centre of Daesh," Erdogan told Turkish journalists onboard his plane as he returned from China, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"Obama wants to do something together especially on the issue of Raqa," he said. "I said there would be no problem from our perspective."

"I said 'our soldiers should come together and discuss, then what is necessary will be done'," Erdogan was quoted as saying by the Hurriyet daily.

Without giving further details, he said: "What can be done will become clear after the discussions."

Meanwhile, Syria's opposition set out detailed plans yesterday for the transition to a democratic state without President Bashar al-Assad ahead of talks with ministers of EU, US and regional powers in London.

The broad-based High Negotiations Committee (HNC) proposed a six-month negotiating phase between the regime and the opposition. The subsequent 18 months would see Syria governed by a transitional body, made up of opposition figures, current government representatives and members of civil society.