Turkey's Gul will not rule out new presidency bid

ANKARA, July 25 (Reuters) Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul signalled today he might make a fresh bid for Turkey's presidency, in comments sure to stir unease in the country's powerful secular establishment.

The secularists, including army generals, blocked Gul's first attempt to be elected head of state in May, forcing Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to call an early parliamentary election.

His Islamist-rooted AK Party decisively won that poll on Sunday.

''Nobody can place a political ban on others. It is out of the question that I should rule myself out as a candidate (for the presidency),'' Gul told a news conference.

''I cannot ignore the signal from the streets,'' Gul said, referring to expressions of support he received from voters for his presidential bid during the parliamentary election campaign.

But he said the party would not rush into a decision and would hold consultations with other parties in parliament.

One of the first tasks of the new assembly is to elect a successor to President Ahmet Necdet Sezer, a staunch secularist opponent of the AK Party whose term expired in May but who has been forced to remain in office because of the row over Gul.

The secularists objected to Gul because of his Islamist past and the fact his wife wears the Muslim headscarf, which they regard as a threat to Turkey's separation of state and religion.

Some analysts say the AK Party, bolstered by its big election win, may now defy the military and propose Gul again.

Foreign diplomats say Gul, an architect of Turkey's European Union membership bid, would make a good head of state.

Reuters SBC RN1749