An Israeli cabinet minister was visiting Turkey on Thursday on the first such trip since the rupture of relations between the two former allies over a deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla three years ago.

Environment Minister Amir Peretz is attending an international U.N. conference in Istanbul about pollution in the Mediterranean Sea.

Turkey said Wednesday it will sign a long-awaited deal with the EU to repatriate those who enter the bloc illegally from its territory, in exchange for talks on visa-free travel for its citizens.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told journalists in Brussels the readmission accord would be signed on December 16.

Turkey's popularity in the Middle East has dropped sharply over the past two years, an opinion poll showed Wednesday, reflecting Ankara's sometimes controversial foreign policy strategy.

The biggest decline was registered in Egypt and war-ravaged Syria, where Turkey is strongly opposed to those in power, according to the poll by an Istanbul-based think-tank.

Iraq is optimistic about resolving a long-running dispute over plans by the country's autonomous Kurdish region to export oil to international markets through Turkey, its oil minister said on Tuesday.

Asked by reporters if he was optimistic about a deal to enable the Kurdish exports, Iraqi Oil Minister Abdelkarim al-Luaybi told reporters: "Yes."

A former Turkish police informant accused of instigating the 2007 murder of ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink claimed in court Tuesday that he had warned police of the plot but they failed to act.

Erhan Tuncel is being retried in an Istanbul court over the high-profile murder after initially being acquitted of all charges in 2012.

Turkish police have launched an investigation into online adverts posted by people allegedly so desperate for money they are offering to sell their kidneys, local media reported Monday.

The adverts were apparently linked to an organ trafficking ring which had been carrying out illegal kidney removals and transplants in Turkey as well as Egypt, India, Iran and Iraq and was busted by police in October.

Baghdad has barred Turkish private planes from flying to Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region, officials said Saturday, ahead of an energy conference that Ankara's energy minister was expected to attend.

The move comes amid mounting tensions between Iraq and Turkey over a mooted pipeline that could begin pumping oil exports from Iraqi Kurdistan as early as next month, infuriating Baghdad, which insists all energy sales should be via the central government.

Speaker Nabih Berri has refused to discuss about fears that next year's presidential elections were under threat, saying he would deal with the issue when the Constitutional deadline approaches.

In remarks carried by al-Joumhouria newspaper published on Saturday, Berri said that “he would discuss about the elections before March 25, when the 60-day Constitutional deadline for the election of a new president starts.”

Turkey is littered with more than one million landmines that kill or severely injure one person every three days, a local lobby group said Friday.

Muteber Ogreten, head of A Turkey Without Landmines, said only one percent of mined areas had been cleared since 1998 and called on the government to act on promises to rid the country of the weapons by early next year.

The Iranian ambassador to Ankara acknowledged Friday that Tehran enjoys close ties with Turkey's intelligence services, a sign of warming relations between the two regional powers.

The comments by Alireza Bikdeli come just weeks after U.S. newspaper claims -- hotly denied by Ankara -- that Turkey blew an Israeli-Iranian spy ring to the authorities in Tehran.