DHAKA: The United States and Turkey signed a deal to train and equip thousands of moderate Syrian rebel forces after several weeks of talks.

Officials said, reports The Straits Times.

‘Turkey and the United States signed a document a short time ago on the train-and-equip (programme),’ Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters.

A US embassy spokesman, contacted by the media, confirmed that the deal was inked in Ankara by Turkish foreign ministry undersecretary Feridun Sinirlioglu and US ambassador to Turkey John Bass.

The announcement puts an end to months of difficult negotiations between the Nato allies on how to train Syrian rebel forces and which enemy they should focus on.

Turkey, a vocal critic of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, wants rebels factions to be trained to battle both the regime in Damascus as well as the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq and Syria insurgents who have seized large chunks of territory in Iraq and Syria right up to the Turkish border.

Washington, whose aircraft target IS positions in Syria, wants to train the rebel forces as part of its fight against IS.

‘Those forces will fight both Daesh and other terrorist organisations on the ground, as well as the regime,’ Cavusoglu said, using an alternative name for IS.

The US government hopes the programme can begin by late March, so the first trained rebel forces can be operational by year’s end, according to the Pentagon.

The goal is to train more than 5,000 Syrians in the first year of the programme, and a total of 15,000 over a three-year period.

The fighters will be trained in the Turkish town of Kirsehir in central Anatolia.

BDST: 0550 HRS, FEB 20, 2015