Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Friday said Ankara's patience with Moscow after the downing of a Russian warplane on the Syrian border was "not unlimited", urging Moscow to react calmly.

"We are calling on Russia, our major trade partner, for calm. But we also say that our patience is not unlimited," Cavusoglu told the private NTV television in an interview.

"If we are not retaliating to what you (Russia) have so far done, it is not because we are scared or have any feeling of guilt," he added.

Moscow has imposed a series of economic sanctions on Ankara after Turkish fighter jets shot down a Su-24 bomber on the Syrian border on November 24, sparking the biggest crisis between the two countries since the Cold War.

Ankara says the Su-24 plane repeatedly violated Turkish airspace but Moscow insists it never strayed from Syria.

But Turkey so far has not hit back with sanctions measures of its own.

Russian ships, including naval warships, are still travelling through the Bosphorus Straits. While Moscow from 2016 will re-impose visas for Turks in a retaliatory move, Russians can still travel to Turkey without visas.

"We are acting with patience in order to return our relations to old days," Cavusoglu said.

But he criticised Moscow for using every platform to target Turkey after the plane crisis, including its bringing a controversial Turkish troop deployment in Iraq to the agenda of the UN Security Council.

Russia Tuesday called the informal talks, but the United Nations Security Council did not take a stand on the dispute.

Cavusoglu said the fact that the Security Council refused to issue a statement urging Turkey to respect Iraq's sovereignty meant Russia had been "disgraced".

Turkish leader says Iraq troop pullout 'out of the question'
Ankara (AFP) Dec 11, 2015 - President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkish troops deployed in Iraq for training purposes in the fight against the Islamic State were not on combat mission and their pullout was "out of the question."

The deployment of several hundred troops by Turkey in Bashiqa, close to an area held by IS in northern Iraq, has enraged Baghdad which has asked Ankara to withdraw all its forces.

"What they do in Bashiqa and at the camp is training," Erdogan told a news conference in Ankara late on Thursday.

"The number of our soldiers will increase or reduce according to the number of peshmergas who are trained. (Their) withdrawal is out of the question."

Baghdad has threatened to take the issue to the UN Security Council if troops are not withdrawn, saying they had entered the country illegally without its consent.

Turkey has a long-running training programme at a base near the city of Mosul, the Islamic State group's main hub in Iraq, but the deployment last week expanded Ankara's presence there.

The base gives Turkey a foothold in an area where a major ground operation against IS is eventually to take place, and where its archfoe, Kurdish rebel group the Kurdistan Workers' Party, has also sought to expand its presence.

Erdogan's comments came a day after he met with Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani, who has long-standing ties with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) government.

Erdogan said Turkey, the United States and northern Iraq will hold a trilateral meeting on December 21 to discuss all issues. The venue for the meeting was not yet clear.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu spoke on the phone with US Vice-President Joe Biden on Thursday upon Washington's request, sources from his office said.

The Turkish premier informed Biden of the training activity in Bashiqa since March and measures taken to protect the trainers and the camp there.

Davutoglu told Biden Turkey respected Iraq's terroritorial integrity and was ready to contribute to its fight against the IS in coordination with Baghdad, according to the sources.

Turkish foreign ministry Under Secretary Feridun Sinirlioglu and intelligence chief Hakan Fidan also met with the Iraqi premier and foreign minister on Thursday, Davutoglu told Biden, the sources said.

Davutoglu has defended the deployment as an "act of solidarity" and said: "When the threats increased (to the lightly-armed Turkish trainers), we sent troops to protect the camp."

Turkey this week urged its citizens to leave all areas of Iraq excluding Iraqi Kurdistan, due to increased security risks.