Turkey said on Thursday it has chosen a Chinese company to build its first long-range air defence and anti-missile system.

China Precision Machinery Export-Import Corp (CPMIEC) beat competition from a US partnership of Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, Russia's Rosoboronexport, and the Italian-French consortium Eurosamrs in the tender, worth $4 billion according to Turkish media.

Turkey has "decided to begin talks with the CPMIEC company of the People's Republic of China for the joint production of the systems and its missiles in Turkey," said an official statement.

Turkey wants to build its own long-range air defence and anti-missile architecture to counter both enemy aircraft and missiles.

In January, NATO began deploying Patriot missile system batteries to help protect Turkey from any spillover of the conflict in neighbouring Syria.

The Patriot missiles, effective against aircraft and short-range missiles, were provided by the United States, Germany and the Netherlands.