ANKARA (Reuters) - Veteran Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, who holds together a frail coalition struggling to pull Turkey out of its worst recession since 1945, was taken to hospital Saturday with suspected stomach problems, a doctor said.
Ecevit's health has been a major concern for financial markets and the fractious three-party government as it presses a $16 billion IMF-backed recovery plan. The 76-year-old has at times looked very frail, though in recent months his appearance had improved.
A spokesman for Ecevit, a prominent figure over four decades of Turkish politics, initially said he had flu and had been taken to hospital only as a precaution. "He is fine," he said.
Doctor Turgut Zileli told reporters at Ankara's Bashkent hospital checks would continue for a few days and he would stay in hospital at least for Saturday night.
"There's a possibility of surgery but I cannot say anything certain yet. He is not in intensive care, he is in a normal ward... We suspect some stomach and intestine problems."
Ecevit insists he is well enough to see his government through its full term to 2004 and push through controversial financial reforms critical to the IMF plan.
VISITORS AT THE HOSPITAL
Parliamentary chairman Omer Izgi, the country's interior minister and other deputies visited Ecevit at the hospital.
Local financial markets, closed Saturday, occasionally flutter on rumors of ill health. His latest health problems seem likely to take a toll on Turkish financial markets when they reopen Monday.
Many fear his departure from the political stage could lead to disintegration in the three-year-old coalition of his Democratic Left Party (DSP), the rightist Nationalist Action Party (MHP) and conservative Motherland Party.
Inflation has fallen markedly in recent months, but the country still shows few signs of the economic growth essential to tackle the country's huge debt problems.
Ecevit, with his trademark blue cap and black mustache, has been a prominent figure in Turkish politics over four decades, serving five times as premier. Many believed this government, grouping the DSP with nationalists who were bitter street fighting enemies in the turbulent 1970s, would last only a few months. But it has, however waveringly, confounded predictions.
If Ecevit were to leave the political stage, the succession is by no means clear cut. MHP leader Devlet Bahceli, whose party now has as many seats in parliament as the DSP, might make a claim for the premiership.
But this is unlikely to be accepted by many in the DSP or in Motherland, which has often clashed with MHP over reforms.
Markets see Ecevit not as a financial architect in the government -- the premier's political experience is rooted in times when Turkey had no financial markets and a heavily state controlled economy -- but as the man fending off conflict between the governing parties by his mere presence.