Authorities in Turkey warn against forming Islamic parties

The Turkish authorities have warned they will not tolerate attempts to form parties based on Islamic ideas, following suggestions by members of the banned pro-Islamist Welfare Party that it could regroup under a different name.

A chief prosecutor Vural Savas was quoted by the Istanbul daily, Sabah as saying the authorities would close down any party seeking to continue the mission of Welfare , which was outlawed by the Constitutional Court last week.

President Suleiman Demirel rejected western criticism that the party's closure was unconstitutional, but conceded it was impossible not to feel unhappy about it.

Welfare's leader, the former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan, said his ideals would be realised, whatever the names, parties or organisations were.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service