Iraq's Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who faces trial in absentia in Baghdad on charges of running a death squad, is in Ankara for medical treatment, media reported Friday.

Hashemi, who is the subject of a Red Notice issued by the international police agency Interpol, travelled from Istanbul to Ankara on Thursday for treatment at a military hospital, private NTV television said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called for a "new era" in Franco-Turkish relations in a congratulatory phone call to president-elect Francois Hollande, officials said Friday.

In the call late on Thursday, Erdogan said he hoped "Turko-French relations will from now on be free from artificial questions currently affecting them," an official in Erdogan's entourage said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki criticized Turkey on Thursday for remarks he said did not show "mutual respect", in the latest bout of a weeks-long spat between the two neighbors.

Maliki's comments came as Turkey said it would not extradite fugitive Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who is accused of running death squads and is the subject of an Interpol international Red Notice.

The trial of Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi was delayed again on Thursday by a row over the venue, this time until May 15, a day after Turkey said it would not extradite the Sunni official.

Hashemi, whose trial was originally due to have started on May 3, and his bodyguards face around 150 charges related to running a death squad, and the vice president is now the subject of an Interpol red notice calling for his arrest.

A Turkish court Thursday placed in custody six active and five retired generals as part of a widening probe into the 1997 bloodless coup that toppled the country's first Islamist-led government, the Anatolia news agency reported.

Among the latest senior military officers swept up in the investigation is General Berkay Turgut, the Third Army's chief of staff, it said.

Heated debate has gripped Turkey over the redrafting of a military-era constitution and a related question -- whether Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying to cling to power as president.

Parliament has started work to rewrite the 30-year-old national charter to replace a text passed two years after a 1980 military coup, reflecting deep changes in a country now ruled by a moderate Islamist government.

Turkey will not extradite Iraq's Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi, who is being tried in absentia in Baghdad accused of running a death squad, a senior official was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

"We will not extradite someone whom we have supported since the very beginning," deputy prime minister Bekir Bozdag was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency.

Seventeen serving and former Turkish military officers were held and transferred to an Ankara court Wednesday in a long-running probe into a 1997 bloodless coup.

The detainees were due to testify in court over their alleged involvement in the overthrow of Turkey's first Islamist head of government, Necmettin Erbakan, reported the Anatolia news agency.

Five Kurdish rebels were killed Tuesday in a clash with Turkish security forces in Kurdish majority southeast, Anatolia news agency reported.

The five Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighters, two of them women, were killed in Tatvan town in Bitlis province, a day after a similar clash in neighboring Siirt province left two rebels dead.

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated a pledge to give shelter to those fleeing a deadly crackdown in neighboring Syria, in his first meeting with Syrian refugees on Sunday.

"You always have a place with us, as long as you want to be here," Erdogan told refugees at the Kilis refugee camp in southern Anatolia, which borders strife-hit Syria.