Turkish-Saudi team formed to investigate Khashoggi disappearance

Turkey and Saudi Arabia have formed a joint team to look into the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Ankara announced on Thursday.

The formation of the team comes at the request of Riyadh, Turkish presidential aide Ibrahim Kalin added.

Earlier, US President Donald Trump said that American investigators were working with Turkey on the case.

This was swiftly denied by Ankara.

"The information saying that the US appointed an investigator is not true," a source told Anadolu news agency.

But Trump said he was not prepared to limit arms sales to Saudi Arabia in retaliation over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

"That would not be acceptable," Trump said. "They are spending $110 billion on military equipment and on things that create jobs, like jobs and others for this country."

"They're going to take that money and spend it in Russia or China or someplace else. I think there are other ways. If it turns out to be as bad as it might be, there are certainly other ways of handling the situation."

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt meanwhile warned on Thursday of "serious consequences" if suspicions that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed on Riyadh's orders are proven to be true.

Khashoggi went missing on 2 October when he visited the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and has not been seen since.

Turkish intelligence officials have said they believe he was murdered in the consulate.