"The government has endorsed the proposal and has started the necessary procedures," Justice Minister Cemil Cicek told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

The general staff said Sunday that the move -- which will reduce the number of conscripts by 17 percent -- was based on an assessment that threats against the country's stability had decreased both at home and abroad.

Under the new arrangement, 18 months of military service will be decreased to 15 months.

Reserve officers will serve 12 months instead of 16, while short-term service will be cut back to six from the current eight months.

Turkey has the second largest army in 19-nation NATO after the United States.

The army said the move was part of efforts to modernise operations that had been delayed due to regional instability -- notably in the Balkans, the Middle East and the Caucasus -- and to "international terrorism, ethnic clashes and radical Islamic movements."

For 15 years, the Turkish army fought the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which took up arms against the Ankara government in 1984 in a bid to secure self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast.

The rebellion, which has claimed 36,500 lives, was largely subdued in 1999.

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