Hundreds hurt in Turkish clashes

About 200 people were injured and over 100 were arrested as Turkish police clashed with anti-government demonstrators in cities across the country.

More than 70,000 people demonstrated in the capital Ankara, demanding the resignation of the government following layoffs, massive increases in the price of goods such as sugar and fuel, and rising interest rates.

The demonstrators - mainly shopkeepers and traders - are protesting against the government's handling of the country's ongoing economic crisis, particularly its acceptance of an austere International Monetary Fund recovery programme.

Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit made it clear he would not resign, saying that the search for a new government would not be in the country's interest at present.

Police injured

The injured included over 130 police officers, according to the state Anatolia news agency.

In the most violent scenes since the crisis began two months ago, protesters threw stones and bricks at police, tore up paving stones and smashed shop windows.

Police used water cannon, teargas and batons to try to disperse them.Eventually they succeeded in forcing the protesters out of a large square in central Ankara.

Unions have called for more protests on Saturday, but the governor of Ankara, Yahya Gur, announced after the demonstrations on Wednesday that he was banning such actions for a month.

Prime minister defiant

Mr Ecevit has said he will not bow to calls for him to resign. "If they are shouting resign, they also have to provide an alternative. I am not glued to my chair," he said.

"I do not believe that the search for a new government would help the country, therefore I am staying at my post."

But the editor-in-chief of the Turkish Daily News warned that the government had to do something to placate the populace.

"The government has to offer some kind of urgent and radical relief if it wants to prolong its death", the editor, Ilnur Cevik, said.

Turkey is negotiating with the IMF for a recovery package, and seeking $10bn-$12bn in foreign loans.

The IMF has indicated it will make available some $6.25bn in aid that had already been pledged.

Other protests

In other protests on Wednesday, at least 40,000 people took to the street in the port of Izmir and 20,000 people marched against the government in the city of Konya.

Meanwhile the Turkish armed forces have announced that they are postponing 32 modernisation projects in the light of the economic crisis.

In a statement in Ankara, the armed forces - the second-biggest in Nato - said the projects would be put off in the short and long term.

No specifics of the delay were announced.