ANKARA, 16 March 2007 — A team of Turkish experts will go to Jerusalem next week to inspect Israel’s controversial excavation work near the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which has triggered anger in the Muslim world, a Turkish diplomat said yesterday.

“The team of architects, archaeologists and historians will go to Jerusalem on March 20 and stay for two days,” the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

When it returns, the team is expected to draw up a report detailing its findings, the NTV news channel said. The mission was agreed by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert during a two-day visit by the Israeli leader to Ankara last month.

Erdogan, whose political career began in a now-defunct Islamist party, had previously criticized the work and suggested a technical mission, saying he was not fully satisfied by Israeli assurances that the site would not be damaged. On Feb. 6, Israel started excavation work on a pathway leading from the Western Wall to the mosque compound. It says the work is a prerequisite for replacing an access ramp damaged by an earthquake and a snowstorm in 2004.

In a report to be presented Monday, the UN cultural agency said a mission last month found no evidence the work had damaged the foundations of the holy sites, but urged Israel to end the excavations.

“The government of Israel should be asked to stop immediately the archaeological excavations ... “ the UNESCO report said. It called on Israel to clearly define the final design of the intended work and said the process should be supervised by an international team of experts.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s ruling AK Party has circulated the names of possible candidates, including Erdogan, it might field in next month’s presidential election, newspapers reported yesterday. The center-right party, which has Islamist roots, has sent a questionnaire to party officials across the country, asking them whether they would support Erdogan’s candidacy and consider it positive or negative for national stability.

Also yesterday, Turkish authorities questioned more than a dozen pro-Kurdish politicians for alleged ties to separatist rebels, leading to tension days before a Kurdish festival that has traditionally been used to highlight separatist demands.

A prosecutor in the Aegean port city of Izmir was questioning 14 members of the Democratic Society Party after police seized propaganda documents of the PKK rebel group and posters of imprisoned Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan at a local party branch during a recent raid, officials said.

Meanwhile, authorities in Diyarbakir, the largest city in the largely Kurdish southeast, rejected a petition seeking permission for celebrations for the March 21 festival of Nowruz, or New Year. They said organizers used the Kurdish word for the festival, “Nowruz,” instead of the Turkish word “Nevruz.”