ANKARA, March 14 (AFP) - Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said on Thursday that he hoped to put a plan to introduce Kurdish-language television programmes to the country's army-dominated National Security Council late this month.
"This issue will probably be on the agenda of the National Security Council," Ecevit told reporters before boarding a plane to attend the European Union summit in Barcelona on Friday and Saturday.

Ecevit declined to give further details.

Turkish is the only language allowed on national television, but the EU has repeatedly pressed Ankara to allow Kurdish-language television and education for its large Kurdish minority as part of reforms needed to join the union.

Several Turkish newspapers reported Thursday that the minister responsible for the media, Yilmaz Karakoyunlu, was preparing a daily one-hour Kurdish-language news programme to be broadcast on one of the five public television channels.

Broadcasting the test programmes would require changes to the statutes of the state network, TRT, and the audio-visual authorities council RTUK.

The National Security Council, made up of military leaders and government ministers, will hold its next meeting on March 29.