TURKEY'S caretaker Prime Minister, Ms Tansu Ciller, held talks with secular leaders to try to form an anti Islamist coalition as the countdown to setting up a new government officially began yesterday.
The Islamists emerged as the biggest party after a general election last month.
"Ciller and [the Motherland Party leader, Mr Mesut Yilmaz] held talks over the telephone to discuss the formation of a new government, and have agreed on more comprehensive face to face talks soon," a Motherland Party (ANAP) official said.
It was the first contact between the leaders since their initial agreement to spearhead an alliance to deny the Islamists power turned sour last week when Mr Yilmaz and a left wing leader accused Ms Ciller of hindering talks.
Ms Ciller later held talks with Mr Deniz Baykal, the leader of her former Social Democrat coalition partners, her party said.
Final official results for the December 24th polls announced yesterday gave the Islamists 158 seats in parliament. Ms Ciller's True Path Party (DYP) got 135 and ANAP 132. Two left wing parties shared the rest of the 550 seats.
The constitution requires parliament to reconvene on Monday, five days after the final results are released. President Suleyman Demirel is then expected to give one of the MPs the job of forming a new government.
Traditionally the leader of the party with the most seats, in this case the Islamist Welfare Party (RP), gets the first chance.
The business world is hoping rival secular conservatives can form a coalition to block the Islamists and treat Turkey's economic ills, such as an annual inflation rate of more than 80 per cent and a stumbling privatisation programme.
But long standing mutual animosity between Ms Ciller and Mr Yilmaz has blocked a DYPANAP coalition before, and some political analysts are speculating that both leaders are also seeking out partners for possible new elections if the alliance talks fall through.
Welfare Party officials, upset at public discussion of virtually all permutations except a government including it, say its leader, Mr Necmettin Erbakan, will succeed in coming to power.
"Once the job of forming a government is appropriated. I believe all obstacles will be overcome," the RP deputy chairman, Mr Riza Ulucak, told a news conference. "I see three or four alternatives for a government including Welfare."
RP officials including Mr Erbakan have been leaning on ANAP, which includes a small, nationalist Islamist party in its ranks, to dump Ms Ciller and ally with them.
Mr Yilmaz, who stormed out of alliance talks with Ms Ciller in September after Ms Ciller's right left coalition collapsed, has insisted that she cannot be prime minister in any coalition with him. He has also secured the allegiance of the former left wing prime minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit, whom Ms Ciller is reluctant to have in a coalition with her.
Mr Ecevit opposes privatisation and closer ties with the EU - Ms Ciller's flagship projects. She appears to be hedging her bets until Welfare has a go at forming a government. If it fails, Mr Demirel is expected appoint her, giving her a stronger hand against Mr Yilmaz.
"But if the two sides still cannot solve the premiership deadlock, then a second effort may be fruitless," said Mr Derya Sazak, political editor for the daily Milliyet. "It is noteworthy that there are now moves being made that may signal early elections."
Ms Ciller earlier met the nationalist leader. Mr Alparslan Turkes, whose party was kept out of parliament by a nationwide barrier of a minimum 10 per cent of the vote, for what her aides said was an exchange of views".