Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reacted angrily to the decision of a US congressional panel's decision to brand as genocide the killings of Armenians during World War I.

Erdogan stated that Turkey was being accused of a crime it did not commit, adding that this declaration was bound to harm Turkish relations with the US.

Turkey has already recalled Namik Tan, the Ambassador to US for consultations, and is considering further responses.

Turkey, a staunch US ally and a member of NATO, had persistently lobbied for the US Congress not to vote on the issue, hoping that the matter would not come to the floor of the House for a full vote. A Turkish parliamentary delegation had visited Washington to try to persuade the committee to reject the resolution. The White House had meantime also urged against the vote.

The congressional vote had been narrowly approved, by 23 votes to 22, by the US Congresss Committee of Foreign Affairs. The resolution called on President Barack Obama to ensure that US foreign policy would reflect an understanding of the "genocide"" and to label the World War I killings as such in his annual statement on the issue.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul responded angrily to the committee's vote, saying it was "an injustice to history" to take such a decision with "political concerns in mind".

"Turkey will not be responsible for the negative results that this event may lead to," he said.

The country has accepted that atrocities were committed in 1915, but has arged that they were part of the war and that there was no systematic attempt to destroy the Christian Armenian people in the region of Anatolia.

The Armenian government has welcomed the vote, calling it "an important step towards the prevention of crimes against humanity".

Namik Tam has worked in the Turkish Foreign Ministry since 1982. Tan was posted to Turkish Embassies in Moscow, Abu-Dhabi and Washington during 27 years of diplomatic service. He has also held offices in the President's administration, the Cabinet of Ministers and the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

From 2007-2009, Tan was Turkish Ambassador to Israel. The diplomat was appointed to the position of Turkish Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary in mid September 2009, before taking up the position of Ambassador to the US in December 2009, following the resignation of his predecessor Nabi Sensoy.

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