ANKARA: Turkey's defence ministry confirmed on Tuesday the cancellation of a $3.4 billion long-range missile defence system project provisionally awarded to China in 2013, a move that had stirred US and Western concern.

NATO member Turkey, which had chosen China Precision Machinery Import and Export Corp as the preferred candidate, decided to focus instead on developing a defence system with domestic resources, the ministry said in a written statement.

Copyright Reuters, 2015