Turkey is set to make a "clean break" with the International Monetary Fund by paying off its remaining debt by May, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday.

"We have been paying and paying... Right now the debt stands at $860 million (643 million euros)," Erdogan said in televised remarks.

The Turkish government has spent more than $600 million (450 million euros) on feeding and housing Syrian refugees, the prime minister was quoted as saying Friday.

"Our overall spending thus far has exceeded $600 million," the daily Hurriyet quoted Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday slammed the European Union for "unforgivable" delays lasting over half a century in Turkey's path to possible EU membership.

"We have been standing before (the EU's) gate since 1959. The official accession talks started in 1963. Such delays are unforgivable," he said after meeting his Czech counterpart, Petr Necas, in Prague.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel hoped that Prime Minister Najib Miqati's recent visit to Turkey would yield positive results in the case of the nine Lebanese pilgrims kidnapped in Syria, reported the Kuwaiti al-Seyassah daily Sunday.

He told the daily: “Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has joined the ongoing contacts to facilitate their release.”

Prime Minister Najib Miqati on Wednesday held talks in Ankara with Turkey's President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, requesting that Turkey pressure the abductors of the nine Lebanese Shiite pilgrims in Syria's Aazaz to secure their release.

After his meeting with Erdogan, Miqati expressed satisfaction with the talks, calling for "full cooperation between the two countries in all fields in a manner that would serve them both."

Turkey's parliament passed a law late Thursday giving Kurds the right to use their own language in court, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

The right to give testimony in their mother tongue was one of the key demands raised by hundreds of prison inmates who went on a 68-day hunger strike that ended in November.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday his government was determined to settle the three-decade Kurdish conflict and would guarantee safe passage for rebels wishing to leave the country.

"If you are sincere and honest, you lay down your arms," Erdogan told his ruling party lawmakers in parliament, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on France on Saturday to "immediately" clarify the killing of three Kurdish activists who were shot dead in Paris, while asking French President Francois Hollande to explain why he was meeting with members of the outlawed PKK.

"France must immediately clarify this incident," Erdogan said in televised remarks. "Also, the French head of state must explain immediately to the French, Turkish and world public why ... he is in communication with these terrorists," he added.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday the execution-style slaying of three Kurdish activists in Paris bore the marks of an internal feud, Anatolia news agency reported.

"The place was protected not by one lock but many coded locks," Erdogan told reporters, referring to the Kurdistan Information Centre where the three women were found shot dead before dawn on Thursday night.

Turkey has made a new proposal to Russia for an orderly peaceful transition in war-ravaged Syria in the post-regime era, a Turkish newspaper reported on Monday.

The proposal calls for President Bashar Assad to step down in the first three months of 2013 and for the transition process to be undertaken by the opposition National Coalition, which was recognised as the sole representative of Syrians by Arab and Western states last week, the Radikal newspaper reported.