ANKARA, Turkey -- Four deputies quit parties in Turkey's outgoing Islamic-led coalition Friday, boosting the chances of the rival conservative party leader Mesut Yilmaz forming a new government.


Yilmaz was asked by President Suleyman Demirel a week ago to form a government after prime minister Necmettin Erbakan resigned in the face of threats from the secular military to his year-old pro-Islamist government.


Yilmaz, who heads the Motherland Party, has been negotiating with other anti-Islamist parties on the formation of a new administration, but still commands the support of less than half the 550 members of parliament.