ANKARA, Nov 16: Abdullah Gul, a strong advocate of Turkish European ambitions and close US ties, was installed as prime minister on Saturday as his party announced sweeping plans for economic and social reform to meet EU standards.

Gul takes office with NATO member Turkey facing critical weeks. Its crisis-plagued economy is poised between recovery and relapse and it is pushing hard to win a date for European Union entry talks at an EU summit next month.

“It’s time to start work. From this hour onward it’s time to mobilize and work night and day to solve the problems of our people,” a smiling Gul said after President Ahmet Necdet Sezer invited him to form a government.

“The government will be ready by Monday,” he said.

Gul was the favourite of financial markets fearful for the future of a 16 billion dollars IMF crisis pact. To the United States, which may soon look to him for use of air bases in any attack on Iraq, he is also a familiar face.

Though a strong figure in his own right, he will inevitably stand somewhat in the shadow of the charismatic Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader Tayyip Erdogan, who chose him.

A conviction for sedition disqualified Erdogan from the Nov 3 polls, which devastated established parties blamed for economic crisis and graft and gave the one-year-old AKP a huge majority. Absent from parliament, he cannot be prime minister.

Erdogan, however, made his leading role abundantly clear by announcing a programme of economic and social reform at a news conference held as Gul visited the presidential palace.—Reuters