A senior US defence official has held talks in Turkey, the embassy said Saturday, after Washington expressed "serious concerns" about Ankara’s plans to acquire a long-range anti-missile system from China

A senior US defence official has held talks in Turkey, the embassy said Saturday, after Washington expressed "serious concerns" about Ankara's plans to acquire a long-range anti-missile system from China.
  
Turkey announced in September it was entering negotiations with the China Precision Machinery Export-Import Corporation (CPMIEC) to buy its first long-range anti-missile system.
  
The move irritated its NATO allies, particularly the United States, which has imposed sanctions on CPMIEC for selling arms and missile technology to Iran and Syria.
  
"Under Secretary of Defence for Policy Jim Miller visited Turkey for bilateral consultations on regional security issues, including Syria, the US-Turkish bilateral defense relationship, and our partnership in NATO," US embassy spokesman T.J. Grubisha told AFP.
  
US Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardone said last month that Washington was concerned about the prospect of a deal with the Chinese company. "There's no disagreement between us but we are seriously concerned about what this means for allied missile air defense," he said.
  
NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has also voiced concern about the decision and said missile systems within the transatlantic military alliance must be compatible with each other.