The beleaguered Turkish prime minister, Mesut Yilmaz, has discounted reports that he is trying to form a new coalition government with his rival the former prime minister, Tansu Ciller, to see the country through to polls in April.

Addressing the Turkish parliament during a censure motion debate, Mr Yilmaz called for elections as soon as possible, and said he was not interested in any deals for a new coalition after Wednesday's vote.

Mr Yilmaz acknowledged he had little prospect of surviving the vote brought over alleged high level corruption.

But he said he would not meanwhile oppose any coalition as as long as it did not try to influence the electorate with what he called an election economy.