Turkey?s conservative ruling party won a strong mandate in Sunday?s local elections to press ahead with economic and political reforms aimed at taking the Muslim country of 70 million people into the European Union.

Unofficial early results showed the Justice and Development Party (AKP) winning nearly 45 per cent of the vote, far ahead of its nearest rival, the left-leaning but nationalist Republican People?s Party, which was projected to win just 14 per cent.

?This success... will not go to our heads, it will increase our sense of responsibility,? Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, striking a sober note, told cheering supporters.

Despite his domination of Turkey?s political scene, Erdogan has still to reckon with the powerful military and bureaucratic establishment, which deeply distrusts his party because of its Islamist roots.

But the scale of Sunday?s victory should strengthen his hand in pressing more sensitive reforms, including curbs on the power of the military, and in key Cyprus reunification talks. Some in the military fear a ?sellout? of Turkish interests in Cyprus.

?Nobody can stop the AKP now. There is no opposition. And they are showing great political will in dealing with the EU,? said Huseyin Bagci of Ankara?s Middle East Technical University.

?I think a date for Turkey starting EU accession talks is much stronger than it was yesterday,? he said.

EU leaders are due to decide in December whether Turkey has made sufficient progress on human rights and political freedoms to open the talks, which are widely expected to last many years.

Political analysts played down fears among the secular elite that the AKP might use its mandate to introduce Islamist-style changes to Turkey?s political order.

?They are opening up the country,? said Bagci.

Sporadic violence marred voting in some eastern municipal districts, not an uncommon feature of Turkish polls. Four men were killed in separate incidents sparked by political rivalry, NTV television said. More than 100 people were hurt in brawls.

The bedrock of AKP support is in pious provincial Turkey, but in both the capital Ankara and in Istanbul, Turkey?s biggest city and commercial hub, the party was also far ahead of its rivals. In Ankara it won more than half of the votes cast, according to early results.

Its main rival in parts of the mainly ethnic Kurdish southeast was the left-wing Social Democratic People?s Party (SHP), which benefited from the support of the pro-Kurdish DEHAP party which did not run separately.

Erdogan?s party was founded less than three years ago but won a resounding victory in a November 2002 general election which crushed the established parties.

The AKP has since presided over strong economic growth and the lowest inflation in 25 years, winning support from Turkey?s main creditor, the International Monetary Fund, and from the EU.

Casting his ballot in Ankara, the head of Turkey?s armed forces, General Hilmi Ozkok, made clear the military remained vigilant to any threats to Turkey?s secular political order.