ANKARA, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Turkish government and military are at odds over sending more combat troops to Afghanistan, local newspaper Turkish Daily News reported on Thursday.

    Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said the government might consider sending more combat troops to Afghanistan.

    "Turkey has its own terrorism problem but on the other hand it has responsibilities of being a NATO member when fighting against terrorism," Babacan said during a joint press conference with the visiting Afghan FM Rengin Spanta on Wednesday.

    "The general tendency is to support Afghanistan in all ways, including military ones," he added.

    Spanta said that he had asked for Turkey's support in fighting against Afghanistan's terrorism problem. "Their response was positive."

    However, a day earlier, Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Yasar Buyukanit said that the military would not dispatch even a single troop to the southern region of Afghanistan to fight against the Taliban.

    "Our troops in Kabul are under the ISAF (International Security Assistance Force), which has no mission to fight against terrorism. Our troops are not there for this purpose," said Buyukanit.

    NATO and the United States are pressuring allies to do more for the 42,000-strong mission in Afghanistan. NATO will discuss the Afghanistan mission in the upcoming NATO summit that will take place in April in Bucharest, Romania.