ANKARA, March 26 (Reuters) - A top member of the nationalist wing of Turkey's coalition government said on Tuesday the country was making progress in harmonising its laws to join the European Union but it could not compromise on Kurdish education.

"Certain politicians, certain circles within business and the economy, see EU accession as a series of promises that have to be fulfilled no matter what the cost and without any say for the Turkish side," said Sevket Bulent Yahnici, deputy leader of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP).

He was speaking as the Turkish parliament started to debate a package of legal changes aimed at updating the penal code in accordance with changes to the constitution passed last year.

The package does not tackle some of the most controversial reforms sought by the EU such as improving cultural rights for minorities by lifting a ban on education and broadcasting in the Kurdish language, feared by some in Turkey as promoting separatism.

Last year's changes lifted some limits on Kurdish broadcasting but other restrictions still linger on the statute books and police continue to crack down on broadcasters.

The authorities have so far entirely sidestepped lifting the ban on education in Kurdish. Earlier this year police detained hundreds of parents and students who signed petitions calling on schools and universities to allow Kurdish education.

Yahnici told Reuters in an interview his party would oppose any move to lift the education ban, which nationalists fear would foster violent separatism among Turkey's estimated 12 million Kurds.

"As long as we see it as an extension of terrorism and the will of the PKK (Kurdistan Workers Party) to politicise its voice, there will be no agreement on this issue," he said.

The MHP's coalition partner, the Motherland Party, has talked of easing the ban on Kurdish education to allow private schools to offer courses in it, but Yahnici said education in Kurdish would require a change in the constitution.

"It's impossible for them to pass such a law without amending article 42 of the constitution," he said. "A majority of 367 (out of 550 seats) is required in parliament to be able to amend that and this seems to be difficult."

Ankara holds the PKK responsible for more than 30,000 deaths since the group launched a violent campaign for independence in 1984. The violence has subsided to sporadic clashes since the arrest of the group's leader Abdullah Ocalan in 1999 but Ankara maintains its vigilance and vows to wipe out the PKK.

The courts condemned Ocalan to death for treason and he is currently held on a remote island prison awaiting the outcome of an appeal at the European Court of Human Rights.

NO ESCAPE FOR TERROR

Turkey has not carried out the death penalty since 1984 and executing Ocalan could be a serious blow to its EU ambitions. Last year's constitutional changes limited the death penalty to crimes committed in times of "war or close war" and for "terrorism," potentially leaving the door open to hang Ocalan.

Yahnici said Turkey needed to retain the option of the death penalty for cases of terrorism in order to protect the state.

"Terrorism still continues. There's no war or close war but terrorism still prevails," he said. "If there's no threat for the EU member countries they can exclude it from their codes but the threat continues in Turkey."

He said the MHP would not be a part of any move to abolish the death penalty entirely, but it would respect parliament in any decision it might take.

"It's already confined to a very narrow extent," he said. "If the parliament takes a step to solve this, even if we do not share it as the MHP, we will respect it."

"But it's a medium term problem anyway."

The Turkish government says it wants a date set by the end of the year for it to start full membership negotations. For that to happen it needs to meet the EU's Copenhagen criteria on human rights and democracy.

Yahnici played down the seriousness of EU concerns about the military's role in Turkish politics. "Turkey is not a South American country," he said. "I'm not saying that the military has no influence at all but it's not that much."

EU diplomats have expressed concern that tension between the MHP and Motherland over the EU could threaten the three-party coalition, but Yahnici said the government was strong and would run its full term until elections due in spring 2004.

"It's a strong coalition government," he said. "There have been problems in the past. They have been resolved."