Any leader would be better for Syria than President Bashar Assad, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday on the eve of talks to find a political transition in Damascus.

"We are tired of hearing about who will replace Assad," Erdogan said during a visit to Brussels.

A Turkish court rejected on Tuesday a request by former army chief Ilker Basbug, who was convicted last year in a mass trial over an alleged coup plot, to be released from jail.

It was the first such ruling since Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said this month he would not oppose the idea of possible retrials for hundreds of military officers jailed for plotting to topple his Islamic-leaning government.

The exiled Islamic cleric at the heart of a damaging feud with embattled Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the government of rolling back on democratic reforms.

Fethullah Gulen also warned in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Tuesday that possible retrials for hundreds of army officers accused of coup plots could deal a blow to efforts to end the military's tutelage over democratic institutions.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development on Tuesday cut its economic growth forecast for Turkey, blaming the impact of a deep political crisis and tighter U.S. monetary policy.

The London-based EBRD also trimmed its gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for its operating zone, citing capital outflows as the U.S. Federal Reserve prepares to taper its vast stimulus.

Turkey's central bank is due to meet on Tuesday with the local currency in freefall, pressured by the political crisis rocking Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.

The lira was quoted at 2.2379 to the dollar in morning trade compared to a record low of 2.2412 on Monday, and at 3.0349 to the euro from 3.0392.

British police said on Monday they had arrested a 21-year-old man returning from Istanbul to London's Stansted airport on suspicion of being involved in terrorism abroad.

It is the sixth anti-terrorism arrest in the past week involving travel to Turkey, which shares a border with Syria.

A double suicide car bombing at the Bab al-Hawa border post between Syria and Turkey on Monday killed at least 16 people, including six rebels, a monitoring group said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, updating an earlier toll, said 20 people were wounded as one car detonated at a checkpoint just outside the crossing and another inside the post.

Turkey's currency sank to new record lows on Monday, pummeled by continuing political problems for the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But the country's economy minister dismissed any likelihood of the central bank raising interest rates to prop up the lira at its monthly policy meeting on Tuesday.

Turkey voiced hope on Monday that controversial judicial reforms would not provoke a major crisis with the European Union.

The comments by European affairs minister Mevlut Cavusoglu came ahead of a visit to Brussels this week by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his first in five years.

Turkish security forces on Sunday stopped and searched seven trucks near the Syrian border suspected to be loaded with weapons -- but let them go when they discovered Turkish intelligence personnel on board, according to media and officials.

Local media reported that a big contingent of security officers stopped the trucks and briefly detained three of the drivers.