Two cabinet ministers -- Justice Minister Cemil Cicek and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul -- implicitly confirmed that the government was working on such measures, a key EU demand, but gave no details, in comments broadcast on television.

Turkey's army, which since 1960 has carried out three coups and pressured one government to stand down, plays a key role in determining government policy through the National Security Council (MGK), which brings together top commanders and the civilian leadership.

As part of EU-linked refoms currently being drawn up, the government wants to reduce the number of generals on the council, the daily Aksam reported.

The Milliyet daily said the government also wanted a civilian to be able to serve as the council's secretary general, a post that at present can only be held by a top general and allows the army to play a key role in drafting security policies.

A third reform involves increasing the civilian administration's role in determining the army's budget, believed to exceed four billion dollarsbillion euros) a year and which is currently drawn up solely by the military.

In comments to NTV television, Cicek said measures related to the national security council were included in a reform package that the government wants to bring to parliament, but warned against placing too much emphasis on them.

"If you put the MGK at the centre of the issue you'd bring about the wrong kind of debate in Turkey and open the way for the wrong evaluation, that the MGK is the obstacle for Turkey" on the road towards the EU," Cicek said.

Gul said the government wanted to quickly fulfill the political pledges that Turkey had made to the EU in its bid to join the bloc.

Turkey has said for years that it wants to join the EU, but Brussels says the nation must first pass a series of political reforms before accession talks can begin.

EU leaders will assess Turkey's progress in December 2004 before deciding whether to open membership talks with the mainly Muslim country.

"We are trying to reflect whatever is in the national programme in our legislation," Gul told reporters when questioned about how the government intended to tackle the MGK.

Turkey's national programme, which is currently being updated, contains only vague pledges on the MGK: "The related articles of the constitution and laws will be reviewed so as to better define the council's structure and functions."

The army, which officially backs Ankara's EU bid, has so far remained silent on the planned reforms, but a former navy commander expressed support for the idea of a civilian MGK secretary-general.

"In the EU unfortunately the MGK is portrayed as an institution which is the army's instrument for interfering in politics. This myth should be eliminated by bringing a civilian to the helm," Salim Dervisoglu told NTV.

But he warned the government against cronyism, saying the MGK's credibility would be damaged if the government used the institution for its own political ends.

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is viewed with suspicion by the country's secular establishment because of its Islamist roots and may find it difficult to implement reforms.

It has not said when the council reforms may be brought to parliament.

The EU has repeatedly asked Turkey to curb the military's influence.

"We want to see civilian authorities placed above the armed forces," Joost Lagendjik, the Dutch co-chairman of the Turkish-EU joint parliamentary commission, told a press conference in Istanbul on Tuesday, the Anatolia news agency reported.

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