The action is in response to Turkey's military operation launched on Wednesday in northern Syria.

Norway followed Finland which on Wednesday had taken a similar decision.

Ine Eriksen Søreide, head of Norwegian diplomacy, told AFP: "We have suspended the export of pre-emptive, new defense and multipurpose materials, taking into account the complexity and rapid variability of the situation, until a new decision."

Norway, one of the world's top 20 largest arms exporters, made a similar move last November when it decided to suspend new licenses for arms exports to Saudi Arabia in the wake of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.