ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's military says a delegation of Turkish and NATO officials will start surveying sites for the possible deployment of Patriot missiles on Turkey's border with Syria.

Syria is believed to have several hundred ballistic surface-to-surface missiles capable of carrying chemical warheads and Turkey, a NATO member, fears a spillover of the civil war on its territory.

A military statement said Monday the selected sites, the number of systems to be installed and the number personnel to be deployed would be worked out after the site surveillance, which starts Tuesday, is complete.

It said work toward linking the systems into Turkey's air defense network is ongoing. Germany, the Netherlands and the U.S. have the advanced PAC-3 model Patriots that Turkey wants for intercepting ballistic missiles. (AP)