Turkish PM offers to amend law to avoid EU crisis

ISTANBUL, Nov 5 (Reuters) Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said today he was ready to amend an article in the penal code used to prosecute intellectuals, a surprise move apparently aimed at heading off a crisis with the EU this week.

The European Commission is expected to sharply rebuke Ankara over judicial action against intellectuals and journalists for expressing peaceful opinions in its progress report on Turkey's accession process on November 8.

Article 301 makes it a crime to insult Turkish identity. The article was used both to bring charges against Nobel literature prizewinner Orhan Pamuk, which were eventually dropped, and to convict journalist Hrant Dink for articles about the mass killing of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey.

''We are ready for proposals to make article 301 more concrete if there are problems stemming from it being vague,'' Erdogan was quoted by state-run Anatolian news agency as saying.

''In order to prevent a violation of freedoms ... we are studying several options for how we can handle article 301 in harmony with the spirit of the (EU-oriented) reforms,'' he said, without elaborating.

Only last week, Erdogan and Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul indicated there would be no movement on 301.

The government has been split on what to do with the controversial article, some fearing it would lessen the centre-right government's chances of harnessing the rising nationalist vote in elections next year.

REUTERS SP BST1951