ATHENS Ñ Turkey and the United States are trying to divert a clash over Washington's refusal to transfer sensitive defense technology as part of U.S. arms sales to Ankara.

Officials said Ankara and Washington are engaged in a muted but intense dialogue over Turkey's request for components and technology that would allow it to produce subsystems for U.S. attack helicopters and airborne early-warning aircraft. So far, the Pentagon has urged the Turkish military to buy all of the subsystems from U.S. defense contractors.

The U.S. refusal has angered the Turkish military and Defense Ministry and some officials are threatening to suspend negotiations with American defense contractors on a range of projects. They said Washington's policy will torpedo Ankara's policy of building its defense industry through multi-billion dollar deals with U.S. and Western contractors.

On Tuesday, Turkish and U.S. military delegations met in Ankara and discussed the dispute over technology transfer. Turkish officials said they were waiting for a compromise formula that would allow the transfer of vital components for Turkey's attack helicopter project.

In June, the Pentagon's Defense and Security Cooperation Agency rejected Ankara's demand for the technology and codes that would allow Turkey to produce a mission computer in the AH-1Z King Cobra attack helicopter manufactured by Bell Textron. Bell Textron is the frontrunner in the $4.5 billion attack helicopter coproduction project.

"Your views and proposals would negatively affect the project which is about to be completed," Turkish Defense Industry Undersecretary Dursun Ali Ercan said in a letter to the Pentagon. "We cannot accept your view on the production of the helicopters ... Such proposals would disrupt not only the attack project but also others."

Ercan warned that an agreement must be reached by Wednesday or Ankara could suspend talks with Bell Textron and renew negotiations with the runner-up Israeli-Russian consortium in the attack helicopter project.

So far, Washington has denied at least three requests by Turkey in as many months for the transfer of technology. This included such projects as the King Cobra, AEW and the F-16 upgrade. Boeing is a frontrunner in the project to supply Turkey with up to six AEW platforms.

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