ANKARA, Jan 31 (AFP-NT) - Greek and Turkish forces prepared Wednesday to withdraw from around a disputed islet in the Aegean Sea following heavy pressure from the United States to step back from the brink of a clash. Earlier Turkish marines had landed on another islet close to Kardak, which Greece calls Imia, occupied by Greek troops in the wake of a "war of the flags" at the weekend. In Athens, Greek Defence Minister Gerassimos Arsenis and Foreign Minister Thoedore Pangolos said the two sides had agreed to withdraw their forces from around the islet, a barren area about the size of a football field. The ministers said the agreement was concluded following the intervention of US assistant secretary of state Richard Holbrooke. It did not call into question Greek sovereignty over the islet, and Greece was not prepared to negotiate over "its sovereign rights in the Aegean Sea" in light of it. Arsenis said US officials, including President Bill Clinton, had spoken several times with Athens and Ankara. Turkish Foreign Minister Deniz Baykal welcomed the Greek decision to pull its troops off the islet, indicating that Turkey would also withdraw marines it had landed overnight on a nearby isle. The minister's statement was taken as confirmation of an agreement between Athens and Ankara to disengage. Baykal said earlier, "We've sent an adequate number of marines there, on one adjacent islet.Everything will return to the situation before the Greek intervention." US President Bill Clinton had personally urged leaders of both countries to withdraw their forces from the area and settle their territorial dispute through negotiations. Greece says that according to the Paris agreement it signed with Italy in 1947, it possesses that part of the Dodecanese islands which covers Imia. Turkey says the 1947 agreement and other related documents do not cover Kardak and that according to international law the islet belongs to Ankara. AFP /AA1234/310640 GMT JAN 96

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