Turkey’s draft plan for a construction project to settle 1 million Syrian refugees in a “safe zone” in northeast Syria would cost around 151 billion lira ($27 billion), state broadcaster TRT Haber said on Friday.

Turkey has pushed for the 20-mile (32 km) deep “safe zone” to be established along more than 400 km of its border with northeast Syria.

It initially said the aim of the zone was to drive back Syrian Kurdish YPG forces - which Ankara views as a security threat - from the border. It now says the region will also be used to settle 1 million of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees hosted by Turkey.