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STORY: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Turkey on Thursday in a visit coinciding with growing international pressure on Syria to halt a military crackdown on popular protests.
Biden previously visited Iraq, where he said the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq by the end of the year opened a new phase in relations between the two countries, including a robust security partnership.
Biden is also expected to discuss Turkey's strained relations with Israel and Ankara's fight against Kurdish PKK militants, whom he has called a "common enemy" of Turkey and the United States.
