Turkey warned of 9/11 styled plane attacks

Officials confirmed that a meeting to review security measures at airports had recently been held, but denied it was linked to a specific warning of an al-Qaeda threat.

Milliyet said Turkey received information from an "important source" on July 16 that al-Qaeda may be planning to either hijack a plane and crash it into a target on the ground or blow up a plane in the air using homemade explosives.

The newspaper said the interior ministry convened an urgent meeting of security and air authorities last week and ordered security measures at airports be raised to "level yellow", the highest state of alarm after the top "level red".

A police spokesman said the meeting was a routine one.

"Security and air authorities meet every month to review security measures at airports ... There was nothing special about al-Qaeda," he told AFP.

Police at Turkey's biggest air hub, the Ataturk airport in Istanbul, denied there was any special situation in place.

"Security measures at airports have already been kept at a maximum level since September 11," he said.

Another airport official said: "I am not aware of such an intelligence but security is always tight at airports."

Security fears have haunted Turkey since November last year when suicide bombers detonated explosives-laden trucks at two synagogues, the British consulate and the British-based HSBC bank in Istanbul, killing 63 people and causing massive destruction.

Officials have blamed the bombings on a local extremist cell linked to al-Qaeda, which they said security forces have now dismantled.

In March, two suicide bombers, also accused of being linked to Al-Qaeda, attacked a masonic lodge in Istanbul. One of the assailants and a second person were killed in the blast.