ANKARA (AFX) - Turkey has received intelligence that the al-Qaeda network may try to carry out attacks in the country similar to the Sept 11, 2001 attacks in the US, the Milliyet newspaper reported.

Citing "an important source" the newspaper said Turkey received information on July 16 that Al-Qaeda may be planning to either hijack a plane and crash it into a target on the ground, or blow up a plane in the air using homemade explosives.

Milliyet said the interior ministry convened an urgent meeting of security and air authorities last week and ordered security measures at airports be raised to "level yellow", the highest state of alarm after the top "level red".

Officials from the interior ministry have not been made available to comment and police at Turkey's biggest air hub, the Ataturk airport in Istanbul, have denied any extraordinary situation.

"Security measures at airports have already been kept at a maximum level since September 11", he told Agence France-Presse.

Another airport official said: "I am not aware of such an intelligence but security is always tight at airports."

Security fears have haunted Turkey since November last year, when suicide bombers detonated explosives-laden trucks at two synagogues, the British consulate and the British-based HSBC Holdings plc bank in Istanbul, killing 63 people and causing massive destruction.

Officials have blamed the bombings on a local militant cell linked to al-Qaeda, which they said security forces have now dismantled.

In March, two suicide bombers, also accused of being linked to al-Qaeda, attacked a Masonic lodge in Istanbul.

One of the assailants and a second person were killed in the blast.

ingrid.smith@afxnews.com

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