The court "decided to accept the indictment (and) the judicial process will be pursued," the court's deputy head Osman Alifeyyaz Paksut said in televised remarks.

The indictment will now be sent to the Democratic Society Party (DTP), which will have 30 days in which to submit its defence in writing, Paksut said.

Turkey's chief prosecutor last week asked the Constitutional Court, Turkey's highest tribunal, to outlaw the DTP.

The prosecutor argued that it had become "a hive of activity" targeting national unity through its links with the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The DTP, which holds 20 seats in the 550-member parliament, rejects accusations of links to the PKK, but has come under fire for refusing to brand it a terrorist group and for voicing sympathy for the rebels.

Turkey has banned several Kurdish parties for alleged links with the PKK, which has been fighting since 1984 for self-rule in the country's mainly Kurdish southeast in a bloody conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

The legal action against the DTP came amid heightened tensions along the Turkish-Iraq border as Ankara threatens to launch a cross-border strike against PKK bases in northern Iraq.