Turkey's leaders distanced themselves from a proposal to outlaw adultery after the opposition came out against it and western governments made clear enacting the law would jeopardize the country's already fragile chances of joining the European Union.
The proposal was part of a major overhaul of the mostly Muslim country's penal code undertaken as the 25 EU states prepare to decide by year's end whether to begin talks on Turkey's membership.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed it would protect families and women who have been wronged by their husbands. Opponents claimed it was a bid to appeal to Erdodan's conservative, devoutly Islamic base and would be a step backward for women's rights.
On Tuesday, it appeared the opponents had won.
Justice Minister Cemil Cicek said after a meeting with the leader of the opposition party that only measures that both his ruling party and the opposition agreed on would be brought to the floor.
Ali Topuz, a senior lawmaker from the opposition Republican People's Party, then made it clear the adultery proposal wasn't one of them.
``We're strongly against the proposal on adultery, and so it will not come to the floor,'' Topuz told private CNN-Turk television.
The penal code package, which lawmakers began debating Tuesday, includes harsher punishment for rapists, pedophiles, torturers, human traffickers and women who kill children born out of wedlock. It also makes crime of rape in marriage and sexual harassment.
The adultery proposal has generated strong criticism in the European Union. Supporters of Turkey's EU bid say the measures would help the cause of Europeans vehemently opposed to the predominantly Muslim country of some 70 million people joining the 25-member bloc.
EU enlargement official Guenter Verheugen warned during a visit that the anti-adultery measure would create the impression Turkey's legal code is moving toward Islamic law.
``If this proposal, which I gather is only a proposal, in respect of adultery were to become firmly fixed into law, then that would create difficulties for Turkey,'' British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Monday.
Details of the anti-adultery proposal have not been made public. Cicek said the measure would only be applied if a spouse complains. Haluk Ipek, a senior member of the Justice and Development Party, said Monday that adulterers could face six months to two years in prison.
Women's groups claimed the law would be used against women - who they say could be imprisoned and lose custody of their children. They said the measure would encourage ``honor killings'' in which family members kill girls or women deemed to have disgraced the family.
About 600 people, most of them women, marched from Ankara's central square to parliament on Tuesday, holding banners that said ``Keep your hands off my body'' and ``No! to the male-dominated penal code.''
Lawyer Senal Saruhan, a woman's rights advocate, said: ``It's a backward approach ... that will allow the state to intervene in our private lives.''
There was still some indication that the government hadn't completely abandoned the proposal. Ipek said the government would still push for a consensus on each article of its draft ``including adultery.''
Adultery was illegal in Turkey until 1996, when the Constitutional Court overturned the law, saying it was unequally applied. Under the earlier laws, men were deemed adulterers if they were proven to have been involved in a prolonged affair, while women could be charged if they were unfaithful once.