Israel has recently launched a new round of talks with Ankara to import water from Turkey, amid worries over its dwindling local reserves.

Israel's Foreign Ministry, which is tasked with conducting the negotiations, had held talks with Ankara on the subject in 2000-2006 but finally abandoned the idea because of high costs as well as technical problems, Jerusalem Post reported Monday.

The current round of talks comes at a time when Israel's national carrier ElAl has declared that his employee association and those of several other major Israeli businesses plan to stop subsidizing vacations for their workers to Turkey.

A large Israeli cafe chain has also decided to stop selling Turkish coffee.

Ties between Israel and Turkey began to sour in January when Ankara strongly condemned Israel's 22-day offensive on the Gaza Strip, which killed at least 1400 people mostly woman and children.

Relations took another sharp downturn when Turkey excluded Israel from a recent joint air force drill due to the Gaza incident.

MGH/SC/DT