ANKARA, November 3 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Turkey's moderate and untested Islamic party, viewed with suspicion both at home and abroad, was Sunday, November 3, poised to win a landslide election victory which will allow it to form the next government, state-run television said.

The pro-Islamic Justice and Development party (AK) was set to win 35 percent of the vote, and take 350 seats in 550-strong parliament, handing a resounding defeat to the outgoing coalition of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, state-run TRT television reported.

The elections are being closely watched by Turkey's NATO allies and the European Union, amid concern over any further turmoil in the country where the army has seized power three times since 1960.

The United States is also monitoring the outcome, as it would expect Turkey's help in any strike against Iraq, its southern neighbor.

Moving to reassure Turkey's anxious allies, party leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a press conference his year-old party, standing in its first elections, was ready to "assume its duty" in running the country.

"Our party, which respects the lifestyles of all Turkish citizens and which is determined to accelerate Turkey's EU membership process and to implement an economic program to speed up Turkey's integration with the world, is ready to assume (its) duty," he said, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Erdogan, however, is barred from standing for Prime Minister due to a 1998 conviction for incitement to hatred and a question mark hangs over who AK would nominate as its candidate for head of government.

AK refused to dump Erdogan as its chairman triggering an ongoing legal challenge to ban the party for defying the law - sparking fears of a constitutional crisis in the predominantly Muslim country.

The party is also viewed with suspicion by the secular establishment which remains unconvinced that AK members disavowed their Islamic views for a more mainstream stance.

Initial results, with some 15 percent of the votes counted, suggested AK annihilated Ecevit's ruling three-party coalition, which came to power in 1999 with just 22 percent of the vote.

The 41-million-strong electorate appeared determined to unleash their wrath on Ecevit's government for an 18-month economic crisis which saw Turkey tap the International Monetary Fund for a 16-billion-dollar bailout, and left a million unemployed.

The strongest challenge to AK came from the staunchly secular Republican People's Party (CHP), Turkey's oldest party set up by the country's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Initial predictions gave it some 20 percent of the vote, which would give it some 190 seats. The remaining 10 seats would go to independents, TRT said.

No other party among the remaining 16 contenders was able to overcome the 10-percent national threshold required to enter parliament, according to the early returns.

The election had been originally due in April 2004, but was brought forward because of political instability triggered by Ecevit's ill health and rifts in his coalition government over the controversial reforms needed for Turkey's struggling EU membership bid.

However, many doubt whether the elections will bring much-coveted stability at a time when Turkey is tackling a severe recession and confronting the possibility of war between the United States and Iraq.

Ordinary Turks are looking for a stable government that will drag the country out of its worst recession in years, while financial markets are hoping for an administration that will remain committed to its strict economic recovery program and its pro-Western path.