Turkish PM says headscarf opponents seek divide

Ankara: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has accused those opposing the Islamic-style headscarf for women of seeking to create a deep divide in secular but predominantly Muslim Turkey.

Turkey's Islamist-rooted government has come under pressure from secular opponents for its plans to lift a decades-old ban on women students wearing the headscarf at university.

"I have a few words for those who claim that secularism will be destroyed, Turkey will become a state of religion, the basic values of the Republic will be demolished, and people who do not wear headscarves will be under pressure," Erdogan was quoted as saying in a speech in Istanbul late on Saturday.

More than 100,000 secular Turks rallied on Saturday against the headscarf reform, a move they say would usher in a stricter form of Islam in Turkey. Turkey is 99 per cent Muslim.

Turkey's powerful secular establishment, which includes army generals, judges and university rectors, sees the headscarf as a symbol of radical Islam and believe it threatens the country's secular order.