WASHINGTON (Guardian) - President George Bush on Wednesday urged members of Congress to reject a congressional resolution recognizing the killings of Armenians in 1915 as ""genocide"", warning that it would damage U.S. relations with Turkey.

The resolution would do ""great harm"" to relations, the president told reporters at the White House. He said: ""This resolution is not the right response to these historic mass killings.""
His comments followed a similar joint appeal from the U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the defense secretary, Robert Gates.
The intense White House lobbying campaign came just hours before the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee met to vote on the resolution. Turkish politicians have warned that passage of the bill to a full vote in the House could severely damage diplomatic ties.
Rice said the legislation could provoke Turkey, a key NATO ally in the Middle East, to withdraw its cooperation with the U.S. on Iraq.
""The passage of this resolution at this time would be very problematic for everything we are trying to do in the Middle East,"" she said.
Gates said 70% of U.S. air cargo destined for Iraq goes through Turkey, as does about one-third of the fuel used by the U.S. military in Iraq.
""Access to airfields and to the roads and so on in Turkey would very much be put at risk if this resolution passes and Turkey reacts as strongly as we believe they will,"" he said.
The Turkish president, Abdullah Gul, warned on Tuesday of ""serious troubles in the two countries' relations"" if the measure is approved.
The threats come as the Turkish government seeks parliamentary approval for a cross-border military operation to pursue separatist Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq. The move, which is opposed by the U.S., could open a new front in the most stable part of Iraq.
Turkish MPs in Washington on Tuesday put their case to members of the House of Representatives' foreign affairs committee.
""I have been trying to warn the lawmakers not to make a historic mistake,"" said Egemen Bagis, a Turkish MP and close foreign policy adviser to the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Many in the U.S. fear for the crucial supply routes through Turkey to Iraq and Afghanistan, and the closure of Incirlik, a strategic air base in Turkey used by the U.S. air force.
A measure of the potential fallout from the vote came in a warning to American citizens in Ankara issued by the U.S. embassy there.
The statement said: ""If, despite the administration's concerted efforts against this resolution, it passes committee and makes its way to the floor of the House for debate and a possible vote, there could be a reaction in the form of demonstrations and other manifestations of anti-Americanism throughout Turkey.""
The genocide label is a sensitive issue in Turkey, which has long claimed that mass killings, plus famine and disease, were part of the civil upheavals accompanying the collapse of the Ottoman empire. Armenians and most western historians believe the events of 1915 were state-sponsored genocide. Estimates of the death toll range up to 1.5 million people.
Ankara cut military ties with Paris last year when France voted to make it a crime to deny the killings as genocide.
The U.S. bill appears to have a thin majority on the foreign affairs committee. But some supporters fear that Turkish pressure could narrow the margin further. Most Republicans are expected to vote against.