"There are widespread, unjustified beliefs both at home and abroad that the Turkish armed forces are opposed to the EU. Let me say clearly that these allegations are absolutely untrue," deputy chief of staff Yasar Buyukanit told a symposium in Istanbul.

"The Turkish armed forces cannot be against the EU because the EU is the geopolitical and geostrategic necessity of the modernization target set out" by the country's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, he added.

The generals have been keeping a wary eye on the ruling Justice and Develoment Party (AKP) -- a movement with Islamist roots which swept to power with an overwhelming majority in November last year -- fearing it might harbour an Islamist agenda.

The army is also wary of encouraging minority rights which it fears could fuel separatism among the country's restive Kurdish population, most of whom live in the southeast where security forces only recently subdued a 15-year armed rebellion for self-rule.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul angrily denied reports this week of tensions between the government and the military, which has neverthleless openly criticised the appointment of Islamists to key administrative posts.

Last week a leading Turkish newspaper sparked controversy by reporting that generals objected to planned EU-linked reforms on the grounds they might encourage radical Islamist and separatist movements.

Army chief General Hilmi Ozkok brushed aside the claims as "unfounded" and spoke in favour of joining the EU, which has yet to formally open accession talks with predominantly Muslim Turkey.

But he also stressed that any move to meet EU norms should not endanger the country's unity and its strictly secular system -- a point echoed by Buyukanit.

"The EU target does not fit in with the separatist and outdated aims of circles who have different opinions as to the country's unitarian structure and secular system," Buyukanit said.

"Those who see the EU and its higher values as a means to achieve their outdated and separatist aims will inevitably be disappointed," he added.

The Turkish army, which has carried out three coups since the 1960s, wields a heavy hand in domestic politics to protect the secular system, and in 1997 forced the ouster of the country's first Islamist prime minister Necmettin Ebakan.

Respect for human rights, greater freedom for the Kurds and limits on the role played by the army in politics are some of the key reforms Brussels want to see implemented in Turkey ahead of the opening of talks on joining the EU.

The AKP government, which has made EU membership a top priority, wants to allow private radio and television stations to broadcast in Kurdish, enable parents to give children Kurdish names, and abolish a catch-all law on "propagating separatism" used to jail Kurdish rights activists.

But recent press reports have suggested that the army is uneasy about the reforms which have yet to be submitted to parliament.

The mass-selling Hurriyet newspaper suggested that the generals voiced opposition to the measures during a national security council meeting on Wednesday, forcing the government to delay its debate in parliament by at least a month.

Turkey is the only country among 13 EU candidates not to have started accession talks with the European Union, and is under pressure to overhaul its crippled democracy and rights record before December 2004 when EU leaders will decide whether to sit down at the negotiating table with Ankara.

WAR.WIRE