Economist and foreign policy expert Abdullah Gul is likely to be appointed as Turkey's new prime minister over the next 24 hours, a source in Gul's Justice and Development Party (AKP) said on Friday. The source said President Ahmet Necdet Sezer had not yet contacted Gul, the candidate most favored by Turkey's financial markets, but that he now seemed the most likely candidate for the top job.

AKP leader Tayyip Erdogan, who led AKP to a landslide victory in the November 3 election, was disqualified from running for parliament because of a conviction in the 1990s for Islamist sedition.

AKP sources earlier told Reuters Gul was the strongest candidate among the three names Erdogan presented to Sezer during a meeting earlier on Friday.

Markets see Gul, a relative independent within the AKP, as the strongest candidate to carry out tough economic reforms under Turkey's DLRS. 16 billion IMF pact, as well as drive forward Turkey's bid to join the European Union.

GREECE URGES TURKEY TO BACK CYPRUS PEACE, REFORMS

Greece urged Turkey on Friday to back the search for a Cyprus peace deal and commit to democratic reforms in order to win a long-sought invitation to begin talks on joining the European Union.

Prime Minister Costas Simitis said the recent election victory of Tayyip Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) offered the chance of a "new start" in efforts to resolve the status of the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

"I meet Mr Erdogan on Monday, and I hope he understands that if he insists on the position of Turkey up to now there can be no progress," Simitis told Reuters in Warsaw.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan this week launched a peace blueprint for Cyprus, which has been split into Greek- and Turkish-speaking halves for nearly 30 years.

Negotiators hope a deal to create a partnership between two equal states under a common government can be reached by the European Union's summit next month, where Cyprus is among 10 states which hope to be asked to join the EU in 2004.
The EU has said it will admit Cyprus without a settlement, prompting Turkey to threaten to annex the north, which has been under its sway since 1974 when its troops invaded the island after a Greek-engineered coup.

Simitis was speaking on the fringes of a meeting of European social democratic leaders in Warsaw where he met Deniz Baykal, leader of Turkey's opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).

PHOTO CAPTION

Deputy chairman Abdullah Gul of the Justice and Devleopment Party (AKP), seen in this file photo from September 26, 2002, is likely to meet President Ahmet Necdet Sezer on Saturday as prime minister candidate to form new Turkish government, Turkish television channels reported late November 15, 2002. REUTERS/Fatih Sarib