The court said on its web site it would convene Tuesday to decide the fate of the Democratic Society Party (DTP), a process that Could take several days or weeks.

Turkey's chief prosecutor initiated the case in 2007, arguing the DTP had become a "focal point" of activities against national unity through its links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has led a bloody 25-year insurgency in the southeast.

The PKK is listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community.

The court will make its ruling against a backdrop of a government drive to expand Kurdish freedoms in a bid to erode popular support for the PKK and encourage rebels to end the insurgency, which has claimed about 45,000 lives.

The DTP, which holds 21 seats in the 550-member parliament, says it has "no organic links" with the PKK.

However, it refuses to brand the PKK a terrorist group, party members often uphold the rebels and their jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan, and PKK banners are a fixture at DTP rallies.

Most recently, the party angered Ankara when it organised a hero's welcome in October for eight PKK militants who had been living in exile. They were freed after surrendering to the Turkish authorities on their return in a gesture of good will to Ankara's reform pledges.

The DTP, led by veteran politician Ahmet Turk, was founded in 2005 as a successor to several Kurdish parties the constitutional court shut down for collaborating with the PKK.