Turkey and the United States have agreed on Monday to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels but fell short in naming the enemy the fighters will be pitted against - Islamic State extremists or Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces.

A senior Turkish Foreign Ministry official said the two countries are expected to sign a memorandum of agreement in late January that would send some 100 military trainers to the Kirsehir-Hirfanli base in central Turkey for a "training and equipment program."

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From 1,500 to 2,000 rebels will be trained in the base in the first year. With similar programs in Saudi Arabia and Jordan, a total of 15,000 rebels would have gone through the coalition training camps in the next three years.

Turkey's participation in the program is a welcome sign for Washington after Ankara's previous reluctance in supporting the U.S.-led coalition against the IS extremists, rejecting a more active role in the conflict despite having a long common border with Iraq and Syria.

Turkey has maintained that the IS cannot be defeated by airstrikes alone and challenged the coalition to come up with a comprehensive plan that would bring stability to the region. For the U.S., it means taking care of the Islamists first while for Turkey, it is the removal of Assad.

But the issue of who the ultimate target of the program should be need not be resolved now, according to the Turkish official, as rebel forces are currently fighting both the IS and Assad's troops.

Both countries agreed on the selection of rebels for the program by a joint commission, after the U.S. disapproved of Turkey's idea to mainly include fighters from the Free Syrian Army umbrella group dedicated to the overthrow of Assad.

TagsUS, Turkey, rebel forces, bashra assad, ankara, Free Syrian Army