Turkish early elections ruled out

ANKARA, Turkey (CNN) -- Coalition partners in Turkey's government have agreed elections should be held in 2004 as scheduled rather than be brought forward, ailing Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said on Monday.

Ecevit, 77, holds together the three-party coalition but has been suffering from long-standing neurological ailments and a broken rib.

He caused a mild panic in the Turkish financial community on Friday by saying that early elections were on the horizon. His office later retracted the statement. (Full story)

Turkey is just beginning to recover from its biggest financial collapse in 50 years. Early elections could threaten political chaos on top of its economic problems.

"The government emphasized that it absolutely does not want early elections," Ecevit told reporters after meeting with the leaders of the other two coalition parties Monday.

He also indicated that the meeting had managed to hold at bay threats by a key coalition member, the Nationalist Action Party, to quit the government over plans to ease a ban on Kurdish language education to comply with requirements to join the European Union.

Ecevit said the government is committed to working toward implementing the EU reforms.

The EU Commission has said it will not give Turkey a date for starting negotiations on its candidacy until it implements key reforms, including abolishing the death penalty and improving the rights of its Kurdish minority.

Ecevit stumbled verbally several times during his brief statements outside the Turkish prime ministry but otherwise looked better than he has in previous appearances after his release from hospital.