The number of people charged in last month's violence has reached 301, of whom 116 are minors, and if convicted face penalties of nine and a half to 24 years in prison. Charges had already been brought aginst 80 teenagers.

The latest accusations against minors carry a lesser penalty of between six months to 18 years in jail. They are accused of obstructing authorities as followers of the outlawed armed separatist group, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is blamed for starting the riots.

The 36 youths will be tried on May 31, said judicial sources, which did not specify the exact ages of the suspects.

Ankara has accused the PKK of encouraging the young people to confront the police to give the security forces a bad reputation.

The riots broke out in Diyarbakir on March 28 during the funerals of PKK rebels killed by the Turkish army and then spread to other cities in the region.

A total of 16 people, including three small boys, were killed when security forces opened fire and used tear gas to disperse crowds, which attacked the police with petrol bombs and vandalised public buildings and shops.

Three women were crushed to death in Istanbul when Kurdish rioters set a city bus ablaze with a petrol bomb.

The Kurdish conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives since 1984 when the PKK, blacklisted as a terrorist group by Ankara, the European Union and the United States, took up arms for self-rule in the southeast.