The authorities in Turkey say they're postponing controversial plans to transfer prisoners into new maximum security jails.

The minister of justice, Hikmet Sami Turk, admitted that the proposal to move inmates from large dormitories into small cells had drawn intense criticism.

He said the government would now look for a social consensus on prison reform.

Hundreds of left-wing prisoners went on hunger strike in protest against the plan; some are now in a critical condition.

The BBC correspondent in Istanbul says the Turkish government wanted to avoid the death of any prisoner. Our correspondent says another factor which may have influenced the decision was the approval by the Turkish parliament of a wide-ranging amnesty.

If it's signed by the president, it will bring an end to overcrowding in the prisons.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- With hunger-striking inmates falling ill, Turkey on Saturday postponed indefinitely the transfer of prisoners from open wards to small cells, where they fear abuse by authorities.

The decision came after human rights activists and prisoners' relatives and lawyers stepped up their protests of the transfer plan. Police clashed with hundreds of demonstrators in downtown Istanbul on Saturday, detaining 200, activists and news reports said. In the capital, Ankara, about 1,000 people gathered in a peaceful protest.

Turkey's dormitory-style prison wards house up to 100 inmates at a time, often in poor conditions. But prisoners fear the smaller cells, which would hold one to three people, would make them more vulnerable to torture and abuse at the hands of guards.

Hundreds of inmates have gone on hunger strikes to protest the plan, and at least three were in critical condition Saturday, relatives of the prisoners said. Some have lost their eyesight, others are too weak to walk and are suffering from kidney problems.

Justice Minister Hikmet Sami Turk said the new prisons would not be opened until a consensus is reached. It was unclear if the step would be enough to end the hunger strikes.

"We don't want anybody's life to be in danger and we don't want them to suffer any permanent damage (to their health)," Turk said Saturday.

The minister called on the prisoners' relatives to persuade them to abandon their hunger strikes. Husnu Ondul, head of the independent Human Rights Association, praised the government's move and said he expected protests to end.

"It would be opposite to common sense to insist on the transfer," Ondul said. "I think that the prisoners will also have common sense and finish their hunger strike."

International human rights groups say torture is common in Turkish prisons. They also fear inmates could be placed in strict isolation in the new prisons.

Turk said the new prisons "will be re-evaluated with respect to social sensitivities, by taking into account contemporary and international standards."

Authorities say the large, crowded wards are difficult to manage because outlawed political groups control them and continue their activities inside the prisons. Riots and hostage-takings are common.

Hunger strikes are also frequent, and sometimes deadly. A dozen inmates starved themselves to death in 1996 before the government abandoned plans to transfer prisoners to remote jails where they faced solitary confinement.

Turk noted that some of the hunger strikers could be freed by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, who is reviewing a proposed amnesty law approved by parliament Friday; it would grant amnesty to half of Turkey's 72,000 prisoners

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey declared an amnesty at the weekend that may halve its prison population, easing pressure in violent jails while offering freedom to an Islamist former prime minister and the man who tried to kill the Pope.

The law, now needing only presidential approval, gave no quarter however to condemned Kurdish rebel Abdullah Ocalan. Nor did it cover organized crime, rape and misuse of public funds.

An exodus of 35,000 out of 72,000 prisoners could have a dramatic effect for those struggling to control a prison system where uprisings are common and organized criminals and militants often rule.

Intervening in one urgent crisis facing prison authorities, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit appealed for an end to a mass hunger strike by prisoners over jail transfers that entered its 51st day on Saturday.

"Two hundred and fifty young people have come to the verge of death. This inhuman protest should come to an end," Anatolian news agency quoted him as saying.

Liberal critics say that while freeing common villains the amnesty law ignores thousands of non-violent convicts fallen foul of tight restrictions on political activity.

One notable exception was Islamist ex-premier Necmettin Erbakan due to begin a one-year term for sedition. The founder of modern political Islam in Turkey will remain at liberty.

Rights activist Esber Yagmurdereli, blind and ailing, must serve the remaining 20 years of a term for "spreading separatist propaganda" in a speech about the Kurdish rebel conflict.

"What contribution to society and the rule of law is freeing criminals?" asked Jonathan Sugden of Human Rights Watch. "If people like Yagmurdereli are in jail for the wrong reason, because of laws violating human rights, then laws must change."

Turkey has to review many laws restricting freedom of expression and political activity as part of its program to qualify for European Union membership talks.

POLITICAL HORSE-TRADING

The amnesty was the subject of horse-trading over a year between left and right wings of a fragile coalition. At times it threatened to upset the calm vital to important political and economic legislation.

"The coalition realized the long impasse, where ideas were floated but consensus wasn't reached, was damaging its image," said Sedat Ergin, commentator at Hurriyet newspaper. "That, and pressure from the prisons, hastened the pace."

Parliament passed the amnesty bill late on Friday.

Members of the far-right coalition partner Nationalist Action Party fought unsuccessfully for the release of right-wing hitman Haluk Kirci, who is serving a life sentence for the murders of seven leftist activists.

Perhaps the internationally best-known beneficiary of the amnesty could be Papal assailant Mehmet Ali Agca. He was jailed in June after his extradition from prison in Italy to Turkey for the 1979 murder of a left-leaning journalist. There was, however, the possibility that technical issues connected with a previous amnesty could hinder his release.

Authorities are moving inmates to new cell-based prisons, from jails with wards of up to a hundred convicts that are difficult to control. Inmates are protesting against transfers to prisons with cells for fear they will be forced into solitary confinement and left vulnerable to abuse.

A rights worker said the health of many of the more than 200 prisoners in the "death fast" protest is deteriorating quickly.

Istanbul police detained around 100 people demonstrating against jail transfers in support of prisoners.

Under the new law, prisoners would receive a 10-year reduction in their sentence, meaning that thousands could be freed immediately.

And those currently on trial on charges which carry sentences of less than 10 years would also have their cases suspended. Those who re-offend would be sent back to prison.

The new law, which now has to be approved by the president, has been the subject of intense debate in Turkey.

Many people jailed for expressing their political opinions would be eligible for release, as will some murderers.

But some crimes are specifically excluded from the amnesty, including separatism, corruption, rape and drug-trafficking.

Controversial law

International human rights group have also criticised the law.

"What contribution to society and the rule of law is freeing criminals?" Jonathan Sugden of Human Rights Watch was quoted as saying.

Former President Suleyman Demirel vetoed an initial version which pardoned people who carried out political killings but not prisoners of conscience.

And BBC correspondent Chris Morris says that even now there is a chance that President Ahmed Necdet Sezer will veto the plan.

The new law will benefit the Islamist former Prime Minister Necmettin Erbakan, who is due to begin a one-year prison term for sedition.

Hunger strike

But it will not help Turkey's best-known prisoner, the Kurdish rebel leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

The amnesty is designed to make Turkey's unruly prison system easier to control.

An even greater challenge to the system has emerged, with hundreds of left-wing inmates on hunger strike in protest at proposed moves to modern maximum security prisons.

The protesters say they will be isolated and exposed to police brutality in the new prisons.

Some of the protesters would be eligible for the amnesty but most are not, and they have vowed to continue their protest until death.

And with more than 200 of the prisoners entering the 51st day of their fast, the conditions of some are now said to be approaching critical.

Parliament in Turkey has approved a controversial amnesty law which could set free nearly half the country's seventy-two thousand prisoners.

Under the new law, prisoners will receive a ten year reduction in their sentence, meaning that thousands could be freed immediately.

Many people jailed for expressing their political opinions will be eligible for release, as will some murderers.

But some crimes are specifically excluded from the amnesty, including separatism.

It will not benefit Turkey's best known prisoner, the Kurdish rebel leader, Abdullah Ocalan.

The new law has been the subject of intense debate in Turkey, and the BBC Istanbul correspondent says there's a chance that President Ahmed Necdet Sezer, will veto it.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service

The constitutional court in Turkey has begun hearing final arguments in a case which could result in the largest opposition group, the pro-Islamist Virtue Party, being banned.

The chief prosecutor Vural Savas says the party was established illegally, and accuses it of promoting subversive Islamist activities in an effort to overthrow Turkey's secular constitution.

The party which was formed in 1998 as a successor to the outlawed Welfare party has more than one hundred deputies in parliament.

The BBC Turkey correspondent says that if the constitutional court decides to ban Virtue, it could trigger a political crisis.

He says it will also provoke renewed criticism from the European Union of what it sees as Turkey's record of limiting freedom of expression.

At least nine demonstrators and two policemen were injured. One protester was in a coma, the independent Human Rights Association said. At least 66 demonstrators were detained.

Riot police used water cannon and tear gas to disperse more than 200 demonstrators who tried to cross a barricade of armored personnel carriers in downtown Ankara to lay a black wreath at the gate of the Justice Ministry.

The demonstrators were apparently aligned to right-wing nationalist groups, which are police supporters. The right-wingers frequently battle in the streets with leftist activists. In the 1970s, street battles between the two sides left 5,000 dead.

More than 200 leftist inmates have been refusing food for 54 days to protest government plans to move prisoners from open wards to individual cells. The inmates fear they would be isolated and vulnerable to abuse from authorities.

After clashing with police, some protesters regrouped in a side street and damaged cars in front of the headquarters of a center-right party. Dozens of shop windows were smashed, including those of the French Cultural Institute, and shopkeepers closed their stores.

The protest in Ankara came hours after a demonstration in Istanbul by thousands of police officers angry about the shooting ambush of a police van on Monday. The attack killed two policemen and wounded 11 others.

An outlawed leftist group has claimed responsibility for that attack.

The Turkish authorities have moved to close down one of the country's main parliamentary parties, the pro-Islamic Virtue Party, saying its activities violate Turkey's secular and democratic principles.

The party has been under threat of closure for some months, but the new move against it appears to have been triggered by a row over whether or not one of its new MPs should be allowed to wear an Islamic-style headscarf while taking the oath of office in parliament.

Her stand is being regarded as a political challenge to the secular principles upon which the Turkish Republic was founded.

The headscarf issue has become a symbol of the simmering confrontation between secularist and pro-Islamic forces in Turkey.

The army's role

Secularism was one of the main pillars of the modern Turkish state set up by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk in the 1920s.

The Turkish army's top brass also witnessed the dispute

Turkey's powerful military, which regards itself as the guardian of Ataturk's legacy, regards pro-Islamic parties like Virtue as one of the main threats facing the Turkish Republic. It was responsible for forcing Virtue's predecessor, the Welfare Party, out of power in 1997. Welfare was closed down early last year. Its leader, Necmettin Erbakan and several of its MPs were barred from public office for five years. Nevertheless, the majority of Welfare Party MPs managed to hold onto their seats by transferring to the new Virtue Party, which tried to present itself as a more moderate force than its predecessor. Despite calls for its closure, Virtue managed to survive long enough to fight the general elections in April. It failed to repeat its 1995 election victory, winning only 15% of the vote. However, when a Virtue Party MP, Merve Kavakci, tried to take her oath of office in a headscarf, it stirred up a major political controversy.

Although the headscarf is widely worn in rural areas of Turkey, which is almost entirely Muslim, the secular elite regards it as a political symbol of Islamic fundamentalism and bans its use in universities and offices.

Deputies of the Democratic Left Party denounced Ms Kevakci's actions

The MP's refusal to compromise has rekindled allegations that Virtue is no less extreme a party than its predecessor. The enraged Turkish establishment reacted by threatening to charge her with sedition. Their case has been bolstered by reports in Turkish newspapers, which maintain that in an address to a conference in the United States, Ms Kavakci had described her mission as a 'holy war'.

Political ban

Ms Kavakci has pledged to make another attempt to take her oath of office next week, but the Turkish authorities are now moving not only to close down her party, but to remove all its MPs from parliament and ban them from politics for five years.

If the courts decide there's a direct link between Virtue and the banned leaders of the former Welfare party, they will be able to establish that there's been a clear violation of the law.

It is likely to be months before the courts come to any decision but if they issue a closure order, by-elections for the party's 110 parliamentary seats would follow within three months.

A group of prisoners in Turkey is continuing to hold hostage more than 50 prison guards and officials in six prisons.

The protests were prompted by the transfer of 12 members of an extreme left-wing group, the Revolutionary People's Liberation Party Front.

Soldiers surround Ankara prison

There is a heavy security presence outside the prisons. However, the authorities say they are trying to avoid any escalation and have no plans at present to storm the prisons to free the hostages. Government officials and human rights groups have been trying to negotiate with the prisoners' lawyers to end the incidents peacefully. Human rights activists have resumed their mediation efforts. The prisoners released one hostage after he fell ill.

Protests common

The BBC correspondent in Ankara says prisoners are apparently demanding a guarantee that no more members of their group will be transferred to other jails.

The group involved in the protest has carried out numerous small-scale attacks against the security forces and business interests in Turkey's major cities. In prison its members are often kept together in dormitories to avoid clashes with rival factions.

There has been a succession of protests about conditions in Turkish prisons. Overcrowding is a big problem, and there are constant accusations of official brutality.