Turkey has agreed to support train-and-equip efforts for the moderate Syrian opposition, U.S. State Department said on Friday, after U.S. envoys held talks with Turkish officials on confronting Islamic militants.

"We are looking forward to a DOD (Department of Defense) planning team traveling to Ankara next week to continue planning through military channels," State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told a press briefing.

Special Presidential Envoy John Allen and his deputy Brett McGurk traveled to Turkey this week and held talks with Turkish officials, as part of U.S. continued efforts to pressure Ankara to do more in the fight against extremist group Islamic State (IS).

U.S. envoys and Turkish officials stressed that "strengthening the moderate Syrian opposition, which is engaged in fighting both ISIL and the Assad regime, is crucial to any realistic and lasting political settlement of the Syrian crisis," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a statement issued after the talks late Thursday.

"Turkey can be helpful in a number of ways, not just with direct military action," Harf told reporters on Friday, adding that Turkey could also provide basing rights for the U.S. military to aid the campaign against the IS.

U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Thursday that the key military assistance the United States would like to get from Turkey would be access to the Turkish air base at Incirlik and an agreement to help train and equip the moderate Syrian forces.

Turkey, which borders Iraq and Syria, is seen by U.S. officials as one of the key elements of President Barack Obama's comprehensive plan to destroy IS. But Ankara has a more primary goal of defeating Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government, and sees setting up a buffer zone on the Syrian side of the border as a condition of its participation in the coalition against the IS.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters on Wednesday that the buffer zone is an idea "worth looking at very, very closely," but the Pentagon said later it was not considering the idea as a military option.

On Friday, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Lisa Monaco met with visiting Hakan Fidan, Chief of the Turkish National Intelligence Organization, the White House said.

They discussed "ways to deepen already close counterterrorism cooperation and to further integrate Turkey's unique capabilities into the international coalition against ISIL," the White House said in a statement, using an alternate acronym of the militant group.

Monaco expressed appreciation for Turkey's support to ongoing U. S. military operations in Iraq and Syria and underscored the importance of accelerating Turkish assistance as part of the comprehensive strategy to degrade and ultimately destroy the IS.

Monaco emphasized the need to quickly build the capacity of Iraqi security forces as well as the moderate Syrian opposition, and to take further steps to strengthen border security and disrupt the movement of foreign terrorist fighters to and from Syria, according to the statement.

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