ANKARA — Officials said Turkey plans to bolster reconnaissance assets along the Çanakkale straits to ensure protection of shipping from insurgency and other threats. They said the assets would be capable of tracking ships approaching and entering the waterway from the Marmara Sea to the Mediterranean.

The Anatolia news agency reported that Ankara plans to establish three radar stations to monitor shipping, Middle East Newsline reported. The agency said the stations would be located in Armutlu, Bozcaada and Sarköy.

In all, officials said, there would be 16 stations to monitor the straits. They said monitoring stations would be established along other Turkish shipping lanes.

The stations would expand the monitoring area to nearly 330 kilometers, the agency said. They said ships would be tracked 33 kilometers from the Istanbul or Çanakkale straits.

In 2006, Ankara plans to complete the deployment of the Turkish Straits Shipping Traffic Services System. The system was meant to prevent the risk of shipping accidents amid overcrowding in the straits.

Turkish Maritime Undersecretary Ismet Yilmaz said the straits were becoming increasingly crowded. He said 54,000 ships passed through the straits in 2004, but reported a decrease in accidents.