ISTANBUL, Turkey -- The role of Turkey's army will change -- slowly -- in the run-up to entry into the European Union, but it will take time, the country's deputy prime minister has said.

Mesut Yilmaz, who is also Turkey's minister for EU relations, said on Wednesday the powerful army would "not be able to change its tradition overnight," according to Anatolian news agency.

The army has overthrown Turkish governments in three coups since 1960 and three years ago it nudged the first Islamist-led government from power, launching a campaign against fundamentalism.

The EU has made it clear that it hopes to see the weight of the military reduced in Turkey's National Security Council, a powerful but nominally advisory body.

Yilmaz said: "The Turkish army is in a very different position from that of other EU countries.

"We cannot alter that tradition overnight."

Last month, the EU set out the political and economic reforms that Turkey must make before it can start entry negotiations -- without mentioning the role of the army, which it has done in the past.

"I believe that when we proceed in the accession path, just as every parameter, the role of the army within politics will inevitably change," Yilmaz told a local TV station in Trabzon in the Black Sea region.

But he added: "The duty the army has assumed in the recent past regarding the struggle against terrorism or ... against fundamentalism ... proves that this change will not take place very soon."

Turkey's General Staff has said it is in favour of EU membership for Turkey, which is already a key member of NATO.

However, it has also made clear it thinks Turkey should not have to make concessions on matters of national security such as the future of the divided island of Cyprus and territorial disputes with Greece in the Aegean -- issues the EU has been pressing Turkey to resolve.

Jail crackdown defended
In a separate move Turkey's parliamentary Human Rights Commission has defended last week's crackdown by security forces on the nation's jails that resulted in at least 30 deaths and drew condemnation from rights groups.

"We have met as a commission since the operations and concluded that there have been no violations of human rights here," Commission Chairman Huseyin Akgul, a member of the far-right Nationalist Action Party, said on Wednesday.

He said the clampdown on 20 jails to end a hunger strike against prison reforms and regain control of the facilities was justified and there had been no complaints to the commission.

Prisoners had been protesting at plans to restructure the jail system in which prison cells would be switched from the current dormitory set-up to rooms holding only one to three inmates.

Authorities pressed on with a limited amnesty law that could halve the prison population of around 72,000 and is a key element of the government's prison reforms.

The amnesty has drawn criticism because it frees common criminals but does not extend to those who have fallen foul of Turkey's tight political restrictions."