Turkish Interior Minister Muammer Guler strongly condemned on Thursday (March 21) the fact there were no Turkish flags at the Kurdish 'Newroz' new year celebrations in Diyarbakir.

Hundreds of thousands of Kurds attended the celebrations to listen to a written message from jailed Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan ordering his fighters to cease fire and withdraw from Turkish soil as a step to ending a conflict that has killed 40,000 people, riven the country and battered its economy.

The celebrating Kurds, in the regional centre of Diyarbakir, cheered and waved banners bearing Ocalan's moustachioed image instead.

"There is an organisation committee of seven people in the Newroz celebrations in Diyarbakir. And I here I condemn the lack of Turkish flag presence in those celebrations. It is a great loss that there are no Turkish flags there. We strongly condemn it," Guler told parliament.

Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), regarded by the United States and the European Union as well as Turkey as a terrorist organisation, launched its campaign in 1984, demanding an independent Kurdish state in the southeast of Turkey. But in recent years it has moderated its demands to political autonomy and broader cultural rights in an area where the Kurdish language was long formally banned.

"Our combat against terror will go on without any interruption. What we understand from the solution process is not to satisfy somebody's preconditioned expectations but, in the framework of national unity, to create an atmosphere embracing all parts of society and supporting peace and safety for all," Guler said.

There was no immediate reaction from Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who has taken considerable risks since elected in 2002, breaking taboos deep-rooted in a conservative establishment, not least in the military, by extending cultural and language rights to Kurds. Two years ago, to the anger of hard-liners, he countenanced secret talks with the PKK in Oslo.

Leftist militants launched bomb and missile strikes onTurkish government and ruling party offices on Tuesday night in attacks which Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said were aimed at derailing the peace process.

Late on Wednesday, a small bomb exploded in front of a shop in an Istanbul suburb, damaging a vehicle and shattering windows, Dogan news agency reported. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.