ANKARA, 23 September 2007 — A draft constitution for Turkey that has fueled tensions between the Islamist-rooted government and secularist forces is likely to be submitted to parliament early next year, a television report said yesterday.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is still working on the draft and will “most probably” send it to Parliament for a vote early next year, senior AK Party legislator Bekir Bozdag was quoted as telling the CNN Turk news channel.

Boosted by its landslide re-election in July, the AK Party has started drafting a new constitution, which it says, will expand freedoms and bring Turkish democracy in line with contemporary standards. The current constitution is a legacy of the 1980 military coup. It has been amended several times but critics of all political persuasions agree that a fundamental overhaul is needed to stamp out its authoritarian spirit.

The reform plan raised new tensions between the government and secularist forces, which include the army, senior judges and the academic elite, following reports that the AK Party was considering a provision to abolish a ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan fueled the row Wednesday when he spoke in favor of lifting the ban. The head scarf, banned also in government offices, is seen by hard-line secularists as a symbol of defiance of Turkey’s secular system.

Erdogan pledged that a comprehensive debate would be held on the new constitution draft before it is brought to parliament for a vote, adding that the code would also be put to a referendum for popular approval. He did not say when the draft would be finalized and made public.

The AK Party has disowned its roots in a now-banned Islamist party and pledged commitment to secularism, but its opponents remain unconvinced and suspect that the party is seeking to advance Islamist ambitions under the cover of reform.

Meanwhile, nine Kurdish rebels have been killed in two separate clashes with the army in Turkey’s restive southeast, the military said yesterday. One of the clashes, in which four militants of the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) were killed, occurred overnight in a mountainous area in the province of Hakkari, which borders Iraq and Iran, a statement on the army’s website said.

Five others were killed in fighting in the neighboring province of Sirnak on Friday, it said. The security forces also seized weapons and explosives in the clashes. The PKK, which has bases in neighboring northern Iraq, has stepped up its military activity this year.

The group, considered a terrorist organization by Ankara, the United States and the European Union, has been fighting for self-rule in Turkey’s mainly Kurdish east and southeast since 1984. The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.