World IN BRIEF : TURKEY : Pro-Islamic Leader Fails in Coalition Bid

The leader of a pro-Islamic party gave up his attempt to form a coalition government in Turkey. President Suleyman Demirel asked Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, who has headed a caretaker Cabinet since Dec. 24 elections, to try to put together a coalition. Necmettin Erbakan’s pro-Islamic Welfare Party was the top vote-getter in the elections, winning 158 seats in the 550-member parliament. But that was far fewer than the 276 seats required for it to govern alone. Erbakan gave up trying to form a coalition after Ciller’s True Path Party and the center-right Motherland Party refused to join because of his party’s anti-secular platform.