In a development reported to have angered the military, General Yasar Buyukanit and several subordinates are accused of having set up a criminal organisation and of abuse of power, according to the newspapers Hurriyet and Sabah.

Newspaper reports quoted military sources as saying the state attorney who drew up the indictment had abused his powers and that the army might retaliate by filing a complaint against him to the justice ministry in Ankara.

The reports could not immediately be officially confirmed. The justice ministry declined to comment, saying the matter remained confidential during investigations.

The charges follow a bomb attack last November 9 in which one person was killed and six injured in a bookshop in Semdinli in southeastern Turkey, an area with a large Kurdish minority.

Kurds saw the attack as a provocation by elements in the army allegedly out of control, and the region was engulfed in renewed violence.

The Turkish armed forces had previously conducted a protracted campaign over 15 years to subdue armed Kurdish insurrection.

General Buyukanit is second in line in the country's military hierarchy and was due to be promoted to the top job this summer.

In a military which remains a powerful force in Turkish politics, he is perceived as a hawk who sees himself as a strict guardian of Turkey's secular principles, a major tenet of public life in this Muslim society.

The media have reported that the indictment in which he is identified is being seen as pretext to discredit him at a time when an Islamic party, the AKP, is in government.

Buyukanit was quoted by Hurriyet in an interview as saying that if required he would appear in court. "I would be proud to be tried," he was quoted as saying.

The indictment also calls for life imprisonment for two non-commissioned officers and a former member of the rebel Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) charged with participation in actions aimed at smashing national unity, and with murder and attempted murder.

Between 1984 and 1999, southeastern Turkey was the scene of bloody conflict between the country's armed forces and the PKK which has been designated by Turkey, the European Union and the United States as a terrorist organisation.

More than 37,000 victims died in the violence.