Turkey's constitutional court decided unanimously that it can hear a lawsuit making a case for closing down the country's governing Justice and Development (AK) Party, BBC reported on April 1 2008.

The decision is the court's answer to a petition filed by the country's chief prosecutor, which called for the party to be banned for “anti-secular activities”, BBC said.

The petition also called for 71 AK party officials, including the prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and president Abdullah Gul, to be banned from politics. The most recent example of anti-secular activites was the AK government's decision bid to relax the rules on the Islamic headscarf, meaning that girls could cover their heads in universities.

This was one of the proof, the petition said, that the AKP government had an Islamic agenda. Banning political parties on the grounds of having an Islamic agenda is not a new thing for Turkey after more than 20 parties have been banned since the 1960s on similar grounds, BBC said.

The court's decision revives a battle between Turkey's secularist establishment and the AK party, which has many devout Muslims and is rooted in political Islam, BBC said. AK has a month to prepare its initial defence, but it might appeal for an extension.