The government approved the deal in April with the US company to buy the Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft along with an option for two more, in what the news television channel NTV described as "the biggest arms contract in the past 10 years".

The newspaper Milliyet said the commission wants more information on terms of the contract, especially concerning an apparent "increase in price". The paper claimed that the value of the deal has now risen to 1.5 billion dollars.

Milliyet said Turkish interests were not being upheld because Boeing was not respecting promises on the transfer of technology.

The report said former prime minister Abdullah Gul, now the Turkish foreign minister, had refused to approve the purchase because he said it was too expensive.

It quoted Defence Minister Vecdi Gonul as saying that if the armed forces had not wanted the AWACS, Turkey would not have bought them, adding that the deal was "a gesture toward the Americans."

The airborne radar systems ar to be used in surveillance of the Aegean Sea, a region that is subject to territorial disputes between Turkey and Greece, both members of NATO.

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