Turkish president vetoes reforms

Sezer may still have to sign the law

Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer has vetoed parts of a reform package designed to prepare the country for talks on EU membership.

The package, which includes scrapping part of an anti-terrorism law, was passed by parliament earlier in the month.

Mr Sezer may still be forced to sign the law if the parliament returns it to him unchanged after further debate.

However, correspondents say the veto is a setback for Turkey's efforts to achieve EU human rights standards before possible membership talks in late 2004.

The veto comes as the government prepares the next, seventh, package of measures.

There is speculation that this new package may attempt to curtail the power of the military in Turkish politics.

'Major risks'

One of the measures vetoed by Mr Sezer abolished an article on "propagating separatism", commonly used to jail intellectuals who advocate Kurdish rights.

"There is a strong possibility that the lifting of the article could lead to major risks for the existence of the Turkish republic and the indivisible unity of the state," he said in a statement.

BBC regional analyst Pam O'Toole says the Turkish Government seems determined to prove to Europe that it is ready to start the EU talks.

To do that it has to prove to sceptics in the EU that these democratisation reforms actually work in practice.

Turkey 'not a democracy'

As a result, it is trying to rush through all the reforms needed to bring it up to EU standards before parliament breaks up for the summer.

Italy's Europe Minister Rocco Buttiglione said in a newspaper interview on Monday that Turkey was not ready to join the EU any time soon, because it was not a democracy.

Mr Buttiglione, a Christian Democrat in the country's centre-right government, said the Turkish army "is in control" of the country.

Italy take up the EU's rotating presidency on Tuesday 1 July.