The ruling party drafted the bill after hundreds of minors, some as young as 12, landed in prison in recent years, sparking a nationwide outcry and accusations that Ankara is not truly committed to ending the bloody conflict in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

The legislation effectively provides an amnesty for children currently in prison and makes it much harder for future offenders to be jailed, Kurdish parliament member Bengi Yildiz explained.

"About 190 children currently in jail are expected to walk free ... Also thousands of others who remain on trial will benefit from the law," he told AFP.

Stone-throwing children have become a fixture at Kurdish demonstrations, which routinely involve shows of support for the armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), listed as a terrorist group by Ankara over its violent 26-year campaign for self-rule.

Hundreds of minors have been prosecuted by adult courts under Turkey's tough anti-terror law, which allows judges to consider pro-PKK protests as terrorist propaganda and punish demonstrators with heavy jail terms.

Rights campaigners have accused the police of indiscriminately rounding up children and often beating them.

In one stark example, a 16-year-old girl was jailed for more than seven years in January on the basis of what she says was a forced confession. The girl insists she was only walking to her aunt's home when police detained her while chasing demonstrators.

There have been allegations of children being arrested only because they were sweaty or out of breath or because their hands were covered in dust.

Three young boys were among 16 people killed in violent Kurdish protests in the southeast in 2006.

The new legislation says minors convicted of taking part in unauthorised protests and related anti-terror charges will be the subject of rehabilitation programmes and other corrective measures instead of jail terms.

Repeated offenders and those who carry guns, knives or explosives at demonstrations would be exempt from the arrangement.

Bengi said the maximum possible sentence for minors would now drop by half, to around six years.

Under much-criticised parts of the anti-terror law, those deemed to have committed crimes on behalf of a terrorist group are punished as members of the group and their sentences are often increased by half.

The amendments exempt minors from those provisions, introduce additional measures to keep children out of jail and abolish articles that authorise adult courts to try minors.

They also reduce the minimum jail term for adults involved in violent demonstrations from 18 to six months.

Bengi welcomed the amendments, but lamented that the anti-terror law would continue to haunt the Kurds.

"This is a palliative solution. The problems will continue as long as the system of the anti-terror law remains unchanged," he said.

About 2,500 minors aged between 12 and 18 stood trial at juvenile and adult courts under the anti-terror law from 2006 to 2008, and nearly 470 were convicted, according to the justice ministry.

Keen to boost its bid to join the EU, Turkey has notably improved its human rights record, but remains under criticism on a range of issues, notably restrictions on civic society and ill-treatment by the security forces.

Ankara has pledged to expand Kurdish freedoms despite a dramatic escalation in deadly PKK attacks over the past two months.