ANKARA -- Turkey urged Iraqi Leader Saddam Hussein to allow the return of UN arms inspectors and head off a possible punitive U.S. strike, the prime minister's office said Monday.

"Iraq is facing a new threat. We are making extensive efforts to prevent this threat," Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit wrote in a letter to Saddam released to the press.

"However for our efforts to bear fruit, it is necessary for Iraq to take some concrete steps rapidly and, foremost of all, lift at once all obstructions in the way of UN arms inspections," Ecevit said.

Baghdad has consistently denied the return of arms inspectors, who pulled out of the country on the eve of a joint U.S.-British strike in December 1998, and rejected a 1999 UN resolution to lift the 11-year-old sanctions in return for such a move.

Iraqi defiance has triggered U.S. warnings of "consequences" if Saddam fails to abide by UN Resolutions, amid hints Baghdad could be the next target in the U.S.-led anti-terror drive.

Ecevit said his letter was necessitated by the "gravity" of the situation and expressed concern over the adverse impacts a possible strike against Iraq could have on Turkey.

"If you do not open your territory to UN inspectors, Turkey could face great harm from the subsequent grave events," the prime minister wrote.

Ecevit asked the Iraqi regime to shed its "unnececessary wariness" of UN inspectors.

He also reiterated Turkey's commitment to Iraq's independence and territorial integrity.

"We deem it a duty with regard to our national interests to do whatever falls on our shoulders to enable Iraq's security and territorial integrity to have a sound foundation," he said.

Ecevit's letter is to be conveyed to the Iraqi regime through the Turkish Embassy in Baghdad, the prime minister's office said.