We can end headscarf ban now: Turkish PM

Turkey can resolve a bitter dispute over the Islamic headscarf in universities without waiting for the new constitution, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted on Thursday as saying.

Erdogan's ruling center-right AK Party, which has Islamist roots, has previously signaled it would ease Turkey's strict ban on the wearing of the headscarf in universities with an article in the planned new constitution.

But approving the constitution is expected to take at least a year and the AK Party is under pressure from grassroots supporters to act now.

"We will overcome this problem together... There is no need to wait for the new constitution. Solving this issue is very simple. We will sit down together and solve it with just one sentence," the Sabah daily quoted Erdogan as saying.

Turkey's secular elite, including army generals, strongly oppose any easing of the headscarf ban.

Of the two main opposition parties in parliament, the nationalist MHP has expressed support for relaxing the headscarf ban but the staunchly secularist CHP is opposed to change.

"The MHP has said 'we're in'. If the CHP isn't, so be it. We will continue with those who are (ready for change)," said Erdogan, speaking late on Wednesday after his return from Spain.

During his talks in Madrid, Erdogan had complained that women in mainly Christian Western countries can attend university wearing the Muslim headscarf, but in Muslim Turkey they are barred from doing so.

Erdogan sees the issue as a matter of freedom of expression but the CHP and other secularists view the Islamic headscarf as a threat to Turkey's separation of state and religion.

The wives of both Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, a former AK Party foreign minister, wear the headscarf.

Opinion polls show a majority of Turks support relaxing the headscarf ban in universities, but some political analysts fear that pushing the headscarf issue will reignite tensions between the government and secular establishment.

The AK Party is expected to publish its draft constitution in the near future but it must then be debated by parliament and will then be submitted to a referendum, possibly in 2009.