A British-based satellite television channel says it has begun test transmissions aimed at the estimated twenty-million Kurds in Europe, the Middle East and Central Asia.

The Christian-based television channel, CTV, has been transmitting six hours of cultural programmes a day in Kurdish, Turkish or Arabic, with no news or current affairs yet.

Last month Britain's Independent Television Commission revoked the licence of another London-based Kurdish broadcaster, MED TV, over breaches of impartiality codes.

Turkey had accused the station of being a mouthpiece for the separatist group, the PKK, and although the new channel has no links with MED TV a BBC correspondent says Ankara will be monitoring it closely.