Israel hosts Turkish inspection of Jerusalem excavation which enraged Muslims

Muslims say the Israeli dig will harm Islamic shrines at the site, which is known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims, and whose fate is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel says the digging is to salvage archeological remnants ahead of the construction of a new pedestrian walkway up to the hilltop compound. The walkway was damaged in a 2004 snowstorm and city officials say renovation is essential for public safety and poses no danger to the Muslim holy sites inside.

Israel Antiquities Authority spokeswoman Osnat Guez said the Turkish delegation would make an official, one-day examination of the site on Wednesday to see the work firsthand.

Turkey, which is predominantly Muslim, has close economic and military ties with Israel, making it one of the Jewish state's few friends in the Muslim world. It has tried in recent years to position itself as a mediator between Israel and the Palestinians.

Relations have cooled, however, since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, which has roots in Turkey's Islamic movement, came to power in November 2002. Erdogan has criticized the Israeli excavation, and during a visit to Ankara last month, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to a Turkish inspection of the site in a bid to ease Muslim fears.

The complex — home to the Al Aqsa mosque and gold-capped Dome of the Rock — is Islam's third-holiest shrine. Home to the biblical Jewish temples, it also is the holiest site in Judaism.

A report for the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, released in Paris last week, said Israel should have sought the advice of international organizations before it started the archeological work.

In February, however, UNESCO concluded that the excavations posed no threat to the stability of the site, and the new report also credits Israel with adhering to "professional standards."

Guez said the Turkish visit to the site would not be open to media coverage but could be monitored through Antiquities Authority cameras set up at the dig, which relay real-time pictures to the authority Web site, http://www.antiquities.org.il/home_eng.asp The Associated Press

/The International Herald Tribune/