Erdogan won re-election Sunday as leader of his Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP), which he has steered since 2003, winning an uncontested vote at a congress in Ankara.

"This is not a farewell," Erdogan said in a two-and-half-hour speech delivered in a packed sports arena.

"God willing, ... we will be one and together under different missions, titles. We will be at the service of our nation."

That was seen as the clearest sign yet that the prime minister, who has notched up growing shares of the popular vote in the last three elections, is eyeing the presidency in 2014.

Incumbent President Abdullah Gul's seven-year term in office expires then, and Erdogan is expected to aim at boosting the constitutional powers of the presidency before making his bid.

"There is no doubt that Erdogan wants the presidency as the next step," said Soli Ozel, international relations professor at Istanbul's private Bilgi University.

The 58-year-old politician has enjoyed overwhelming public support as he climbed the ladder of his political career, first as the mayor of Istanbul, then chairman of the AKP and lastly prime minister.

"The congress has clearly shown that Erdogan is ready for the presidency, if he is assigned by the party to take over the post," said Omer Sahin, senior editor of the liberal Radikal daily.

Observers say Erdogan is seeking a powerful executive presidency similar to that in the United States, rather than the current symbolic one, after overcoming an ever-thinning and fragmented opposition to make the change.

By 2023, on the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the republic, Turkey will be a land of advanced democracy and freedoms, he pledged, without dwelling on how it will get there.

More than 100 foreign guests including Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi, Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani and Khaled Meshaal, the head of the Palestinian Hamas movement, also attended the congress.

"We have shown everyone that an advanced democracy can exist in a predominantly Muslim country," Erdogan told the congress. "We have become a role model for all Muslim countries."

Known for his muscular politics, the prime minister is now trying to consolidate the AKP to avoid rivalries after his departure for the presidency.

"Learning a lesson from the past is important in politics," said Murat Yilmaz of Ankara-based think tank the Institute of Strategic Thinking.

Turkey's late politician Turgut Ozal's centre-right Motherland Party faced intra-party competition after he moved to the president's chair, he recalled.

"Erdogan is taking measures to prevent such a scenario from turning into a reality," Yilmaz said.

With a consolidated right under his wings, Erdogan may have a better chance for a breakthrough on the nearly three decade Kurdish problem as president, a Western diplomat told AFP.

"From outside, we'll be looking closely at whether we'll see 'Erdogan the politician' or 'Erdogan the statesman'. If it's the latter, we'll see real progress," on the Kurdish problem, he added.

Erdogan has kept mum on a solution in the face of a recent sharp surge in Kurdish separatist rebel attacks, triggering fully-fledged army operations.

The government-led reforms on more rights, including access to the once-banned Kurdish language, are widely branded "too little, too late" to settle the Kurdish question that has cost some 45,000 lives in almost three decades.

But a settlement would etch Erdogan's name in Turkish history as the long-running conflict became a burden for previous governments.