SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, January 5 (News Agencies) - Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul urged the region to "work hard to avoid" war against Iraq and opposed the country's breakup, after talks here Sunday, January 5, with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

Gul is touring Arab states in search of a way to defuse the U.S.-British threat to attack over Iraq over its alleged weapons of mass destruction, amid Turkish and Arab fears a war would destabilize the Middle East, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"We all have to work hard to avoid the war," Gul told a press conference with his Egyptian counterpart, Atef Ebeid, in this Red Sea resort.

"We should do our best, not only Turkey, but all of us in the region, including Iraq," Gul said after a one-hour meeting and lunch with Mubarak.

Gul, who travels next to Jordan and Saudi Arabia following a visit to Syria Saturday, January 4, said a Turkish minister of state would travel to Baghdad Monday, January 6, to push for a peaceful settlement.

He voiced hope "that the Iraqi government cooperates and proves that it is true that Iraq is free of weapons" of mass destruction.

The Turkish prime minister said in Damascus that Syria and Turkey had agreed to increase their efforts to help resolve the standoff peacefully.

In Sharm el-Sheikh, Gul also said "we don't want to see Iraq to be divided."

Turkey and Syria fear that a U.S.-led war that topples Iraqi President Saddam Hussein could lead to Iraq's breakup and the creation of a Kurdish state in the north, with a knock-on effect among their own Kurdish minorities.

In Ankara, the liberal Milliyet daily reported Sunday that Turkey has sent more tanks into neighboring northern Iraq, reinforcing its military presence in the breakaway Kurdish-held region amid concerns of war.

Turkey, a key NATO ally of the United States and the only Muslim member of the North Atlantic alliance, has come under increasing U.S. pressure to throw its weight behind U.S. plans for a possible war.

U.S. warplanes, which mounted raids from Turkish bases in the 1991 Gulf war to end Iraq's occupation of Kuwait and have since used them to patrol a no-fly zone in northern Iraq, could benefit from such facilities in a new war.

Other countries in the Middle East, such as Egypt, fear general instability resulting from a war.

Yet, most Gulf Arab states have opened their doors to U.S. military forces deploying in the region.

According to the BBC's online news service, Turkey says it could face losses of $28bn in the event of an attack, but the U.S. has so far only offered a package worth $3-4bn.

Meanwhile, Gul downplayed comments by Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis Friday, January 3, that exile for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein could be an option.

"I don't think he mentioned it like that. There is always some kind of misunderstanding," he said. "It's is not our plan that Saddam goes into exile. In fact, to stop the war there would be many other ways than exile."

He said he and the Egyptians did not discuss New Year's day air and naval maneuvers involving Turkish, U.S. and Israeli forces off the coast of Israel in the eastern Mediterranean.

The 22-member Arab League has criticized the military defense pact Turkey and Israel signed in 1996, though Ankara has said it is not aimed at any Arab country.