Turkey said on Wednesday that it had detained and deported Ibrahim El Bakraoui, one of the two suicide bombers at Brussels airport, and accused the Belgian authorities of failing to confirm his links to terror.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkish authorities detained the attacker in June last year in Gaziantep, close to the Syrian border, and then deported the 'foreign terrorist fighter' to the Netherlands at his request.

"One of the Brussels attackers was detained in Gaziantep and then deported," Erdogan told reporters in Ankara.

Erdogan said the Belgian authorities had failed to confirm the suspect's links to terrorism 'despite our warnings' following his deportation.

"Despite our warnings that this person was a foreign terrorist fighter, the Belgian authorities could not identify a link to terrorism," he said.

Erdogan said the man had initially been deported to the Netherlands at his own request and that Dutch authorities had been informed.