The court said there was no reason to bar the Democratic Society Party (DTP) from contesting elections or prevent its members from running on the ticket of other parties or as independents, Anatolia reported.

The court also rejected demands to block any treasury assistance the party could be entitled to and to stop the recruitment of new members, it said.

The DTP welcomed the ruling, but did not see it as any indication that the case, which is seeking to close the party down, would go in its favour.

"It is a positive decision, even though it does not constitute any signal on the essence of the case," senior DTP deputy Selahattin Demirtas told AFP.

"The prosecution demands were unlawful and the court did what the law requires," he said.

The restriction requests were part of a charge sheet that Turkey's chief prosecutor submitted to the Constitutional Court in November.

The prosecutor wants the DTP to be outlawed, arguing it has become "a hive of activity" targeting national unity through its links with the separatist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Ankara lists as a terrorist group.

The case is expected to take at least six months.

The DTP, which holds 20 seats in the 550-member parliament, denies links with the PKK. Its members, however, have come under fire for refusing to brand the group a terrorist organisation and often voicing sympathy for the rebels.

Party chairman Nurettin Demirtas, who has served time in prison for belonging to the PKK, was arrested this month on charges of using a false medical report to evade compulsory military service.

The legal assault on the DTP comes amid Turkish bombing raids on PKK targets in neighbouring northern Iraq since December 16, prompted by increased rebel violence this year.

Turkey has banned several Kurdish parties for alleged links with the rebels.

The PKK has waged a bloody 23-year campaign for self-rule in the southeast in a conflict that has claimed more than 37,000 lives.