Pro-Islamic Turkish leader returns

Erbakan sparred frequently with the secular establishment

Turkey's former Islamist prime minister Necmettin Erbakan has returned to political life after a five-year ban for violating the country's secular constitution.

The 77-year-old veteran politician was forced by the poweful military to leave government in 1997, and a year later his Welfare Party was shut down by Turkey's Constitutional Court on charges of "undermining" the secular political system.

He was sentenced to prison for his pro-Islamist and pro-Kurdish remarks, but escaped the one-year term under a political amnesty.

To mark his return, Mr Erbakan has taken up the position of chairman of the pro-Islamic Saadet - or Felicity - party, a movement which failed to win any parliamentary seats in last November's election

Promoting Islam

Despite the current weakness of Saadet, Mr Erbakan is nonetheless seen as a potential rival to Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, leader of the Islamist-based Justice and Development Party (AKP).

A row has recently broken out over headscarves

The AKP, which won a landslide victory in the November elections, traces its roots back to Mr Erbakan's Welfare Party, and Mr Erdogan himself was once a member.

Saadet accuses the AKP of being too moderate, and demands the stronger promotion of Islam.

The secular-minded military is extremely sensitive about any efforts to increase the profile of the faith in the country.

While the AKP has sought to distance itself from the Islamist label, there have been signs of rising tensions between the government and the secular establishment, most recently sparked by the issue of the wearing of Islamist-style headscarves.

The military has warned the AKP against any modification of the strict regulations which ban headscarves being worn in public buildings.