Turkish and US officials started on Thursday their first “operational” meeting over the ongoing crisis in Syria

Turkish and US officials started on Thursday their first “operational” meeting over the ongoing crisis in Syria.

The meeting in Ankara is expected to coordinate military, intelligence and political responses to the conflict in Syria.

Turkish foreign ministry deputy under-secretary Halit Cevik and US ambassador Elisabeth Jones are leading the delegations made up of intelligence agents, military officials and diplomats at the meeting, a foreign ministry source told AFP.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had announced their plans for such a mechanism.

On Monday, Davutoglu said Turkey can handle no more than 100,000 Syrian refugees and has proposed setting up a UN buffer zone inside Syria to shelter them.