"These discussions are not worthy of Turkey," Gul told a press conference as he left for an EU-Mediterranean conference on the Greek island of Crete.

"It is sad that these kind of insane discussions take place in Turkey."

Gul was speaking after centre-left Cumhuriyet newspaper reported last week that that army chief Hilmi Ozkok had told Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the military feared a package of planned reforms could encourage radical Islamist and separatist movements.

General Ozkok was due to meet Turkish journalists later on Monday to explain the military's views.

Erdogan himself slammed the reports as "made-up" on Sunday, saying they were the result of deliberate attempts by unnamed political opponents to stir trouble.

The reforms, which have yet to be presented to parliament, would allow private radio and television stations to broadcast in Kurdish, lift restrictions preventing children being given Kurdish names and abolish a law against "propagating separatism", often used to jail Kurdish rights activists.

In its role as the self-appointed guardian of Turkey's secular state, the army forced the 1997 ouster of the country's first Islamic prime minister Necmettin Erbakan, and is watching closely to see whether Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), a conservative movement with Islamic roots, deviates from the secularist path.

The AKP says it has parted with its Islamist founding principles, but is still suspected by many of harbouring a hidden religious agenda.

Parliamentary opposition leader Deniz Baykal, a secularist, warned the government on Sunday against any depature from secular principles in its policies.

"You must not engage in a conflict between the state and the people," he said on Turkish television.

Army top brass last month issued a similar warning after generals and other establishment figures boycotted an official reception in parliament amid a spat over the wearing of the Islamic-style headscarf, which is seen as a declaration of support for political Islam and banned from public places.

The AKP has also been accused of appointing Islamists to government jobs and asking Turkish embassies to support Milli Gorus, an expatriate Islamist group accused of promoting extremism.

An improvement in Turkey's human rights situation is one of the main changes the EU wants to see before its leaders are due to decide next year whether to begin formal negotiations over Ankara's EU membership.

WAR.WIRE