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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his US counterpart Donald Trump during a phone conversation agreed to speed up negotiations on the creation of a security zone in northeastern Syria, Sputnik reports, citing the Turkish leader’s administration.

“Today, our president held a phone conversation with his US counterpart Donald Trump. President Erdogan said Turkey was ready to take urgent security measures in the Manbij region to prevent the PKK-YPG [Kurdistan Workers’ Party — Kurdish People's Protection Units] from destabilizing the situation…. The leaders also agreed to speed up the negotiations initiated by the heads of the headquarters of the two countries to create a security zone in Syria", the statement says.

The parties agreed to take measures to eliminate the remnants of the IS terrorist group in Syria and to prevent its revival, it added.

Erdogan also expressed his condolences to Trump in connection with the death of the US troops as a result of the terrorist attack in Manbij, adding that this provocation is aimed at influencing the decision of the US President to withdraw US troops from Syria.

On Tuesday, Erdogan said, following a phone conversation with Trump, that the latter had proposed creating a 30-kilometer (18-mile) buffer zone in Syria. The Turkish leader recalled that he had come with a similar initiative as far back as when Barack Obama was president, but the proposal never came to pass. According to Erdogan, the future security zone will be controlled by the country's military.

In December, Erdogan announced that Ankara was ready to launch a military operation against Kurdish fighters on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River as well as in Syria's Manbij, located near the Turkish border, if the United States did not remove the militia from there.

The Turkish later said that he had decided to postpone the start of the military operation in Syria after a phone conversation with Trump on 14 December, during which the US president also revealed his plans to withdraw troops from Syria.