Details of the scheme, aimed at reducing support for the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a 25-year armed campaign against the Ankara government, have not yet been announced.

Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Cicek said the proposals would go before Turkey's parliament for discussion next Tuesday.

Turkish media reports suggest government measures may include lifting restrictions on the use of the Kurdish language, allowing the return of 12,000 Turkish Kurds currently in a camp in Iraq and investing several million dollars to tackle poverty and unemployment.

In recent months Ankara has held numerous consultations on reforms to improve the rights of the country's 15 million Kurds, most of whom live in the southeast of the country.

Many Kurds want a reference to Kurdish identity to be included in Turkey's laws, a suggestion rejected by Akara.

The conflict with the PKK has claimed around 45,000 lives since it began in 1984, and the organisation is also well established in Kurdish-majority northern Iraq.