The earthquake has provoked huge public anger in Turkey, with victims railing at the failure of the state system to protect their families.

For Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit it has produced an unexpected and unwelcome challenge.

Only months after he took charge of a coalition government comprised of centre left, ultra nationalist and centre right parties, Mr Ecevit is struggling with a natural disaster that is likely to cost the country many billions of dollars and put back his ambitious schemes for economic reform.

Meanwhile there is mounting pressure for major political change.

Faced with a rising death toll, the Turkish public are demanding that action be taken against cowboy builders whose shoddy workmanship led to the collapse of so many homes, and corrupt officials who either benefited from - or turned a blind eye to - their activities.

The rising death toll is making many turn their fury on the government

Turkey's opposition parties have so far refrained from attacking the government over its handling of the crisis. They may be reluctant to be seen making political hay from a national tragedy.

But it may also be because so many of them have been implicated in major corruption scandals in the past.

Almost every party in parliament has been in power at one time or another over recent decades as large numbers of sub-standard buildings were thrown up amid a massive migration to the cities.

All previous governments can be accused of failing to police building regulations - many individual politicians have been accused of making money from the building boom.

It is previous administrations, rather than Mr Ecevit's, who are responsible for ignoring warnings from Tokyo that unless Turkey improved its building standards, it, too, could face a disaster like the 1995 Kobe earthquake, in which more than 6,000 people died.

The current government is already making noises about launching an inquiry into the activities of certain building contractors. But much may depend on how far it can go.

Japan has promised PM Bulent Ecevit $1m in aid

Mr Ecevit himself is regarded as an honourable, hardworking man, free from the taint of corruption.

But corruption has become endemic in Turkey over recent years as government officials' pay failed to keep up with inflation, running at between 60 and 80% throughout most of the 1990s.

Even a determined anti-corruption drive may founder in the face of deep-rooted opposition within the establishment.

Mr Ecevit will currently be seeking to improve the co-ordination of the current rescue effort in a bid to deflect growing criticism.

But while he may be able to institute some improvements, he will still be working within an unwieldy, overstaffed and inefficient state system, which he inherited from previous administrations.

For the time being, the government may have to content itself with simply doing its best against apparently insuperable odds.