A Turkish security court sentenced Ocalan to death in 1999 for leading the Kurdistan Workers Party's (PKK) violent campaign for a Kurdish homeland in southeastern Turkey. More than 30,000 people have died since fighting erupted in 1984.

"It would be realistic to say the decision (on Ocalan's appeal) could be made this year," ECHR President Luzius Wildhaber was quoted as saying by state-run Anatolian news agency. His remarks were carried in Turkish.

Wildhaber also said on his visit to Ankara that a decision on the appeal was possible before the court's summer recess.

Ocalan's lawyers have accused Turkey of violating Ocalan's rights beginning with his capture by special forces in Nairobi in 1999 after an international dragnet.

The ECHR, based in Strasbourg, France, agreed to hear Ocalan's appeal in 2000, ruling that his complaints were admissible under several articles of the European Convention on Human Rights, including the right to life and the right to a fair trial.

Turkey is a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights, but has never ratified the accord, which outlaws capital punishment.

No one has been executed in Turkey since the mid-1980s, but the death penalty remains on the statute books.

Ankara must abolish capital punishment and overhaul its chequered human rights record for membership talks to begin with the European Union, which Turkey aspires to join.

Fighting between the PKK and Turkish security forces has fallen off steeply since Ocalan's capture. From death row, he has called on followers to withdraw from Turkey and seek greater cultural rights for Turkey's 12 million Kurds.

Ocalan is the lone inmate of an island jail as he awaits the European court's ruling, which is open to appeal by either side.