Continued Allied Presence in Turkey OKd : Security: Leaders agree that without flights over northern Iraq, Saddam Hussein would again menace the Kurds.

In a development that would please the United States, visiting British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd won Turkish backing Tuesday for continuing an allied security zone in northern Iraq to protect 3 million Kurds there from Saddam Hussein.

There had been doubts about Turkey’s willingness to continue playing host to the American, British and French warplanes that patrol the zone. After meeting Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel and other Turkish leaders, though, Hurd said that Turkey “shared the analysis” that the flights over northern Iraq should continue after the current term of what is called Operation Provide Comfort expires in June.

Hurd said Turkey agrees with Britain’s view--also firmly held in Washington and Paris--that Iraq’s President Hussein remains “a clear threat to stability and decent conditions in north Iraq.”

Without the allied pressure as a deterrent, Hurd said, there is every indication that Hussein would renew attacks against the Kurds of the sort that provoked their massive flight last spring into Iran and the mountains of Turkey. Although Turkey is discomfited by the continued presence of foreign troops and aircraft on its soil, it is even more determined that there be no new Kurdish exodus onto its territory.

A senior Turkish official said in an interview Tuesday that Demirel would ask Parliament to approve extension of the program.

The security zone, established amid a U.S.-led allied effort to succor the Kurdish refugees in Turkey and encourage them to return to Iraq, continues to receive international humanitarian aid and is patrolled daily by allied military jets and helicopters.

Iraq, which is forbidden to operate aircraft north of the 36th Parallel, sealed off the northern Kurdish areas last fall, cutting all supplies and services normally administered from Baghdad.

Earlier this month, Iraqi antiaircraft batteries were reported to have been moved north of the 36th Parallel, where they targeted allied aircraft with their radar.

Last week, the United States, Britain and France told Iraq to abandon the threatening practice or face the consequences. Since then, there has been a partial Iraqi withdrawal, Hurd said.

“There is a pattern of Iraqi behavior of probing forward and moving back after a firm response. We believe this situation requires constant vigilance and strength. . . . Overflight will remain a necessity for some time,” he told a news conference.

Permission for basing allied aircraft and troops in Turkey first came during last year’s Persian Gulf crisis from the government of President Turgut Ozal.

Ozal remains president, but in elections last fall his party lost control of Parliament to old foe Demirel, whose party--running the country in coalition with another party--attacked Ozal for arrogating Turkish sovereignty in accepting the foreign troops. It will be up to the Turkish Parliament, where Demirel and Ozal could jointly exercise an overwhelming majority, to formally extend Operation Provide Comfort.