Ankara said on Friday it is closely watching" Russian troop movements in Syria near its border, after reports that Russian servicemen had deployed in the Syrian border town of Qamishli.

Ankara said on Friday it is closely watching" Russian troop movements in Syria near its border, after reports that Russian servicemen had deployed in the Syrian border town of Qamishli.

"I can say that Turkey is closely watching every military movement on its borders and especially the border with Syria," a government source in Ankara told AFP on Friday, asking not to be named.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Tugrul Turkes said in parliament on Thursday that he did not see any threat in Russia's movements on the border.

"We are aware of Russia's movements. Russia's movements in Qamishli cannot constitute a threat for Turkey, which is a member of NATO."

But the Turkish army has already reinforced security by digging trenches in the border zone, the Hurriyet daily said. Top Russian military officials, including figures from the GRU military intelligence service, had already visited Qamishli, it added.

The remarks comes as the Britain-based monitor the “Syrian Observatory for Human Rights” had said that Russia had sent a number of engineers to Qamishli to strengthen the runway and increase the capacity of an airport just south of the town.

Russia's reported move into Qamishli comes as Ankara and Moscow are experiencing their biggest crisis in years over the shooting down of a Russian war plane by Turkey on November 24.

Qamishli lies just south of the Turkish border town of Nusaybin.