Mrs Zana recently praised Turkey's efforts to meet EU demands

Mrs Zana said her new movement would seek a "peaceful and democratic" solution to demands for Kurdish rights.

Mrs Zana and three fellow former MPs spent a decade in Turkish jails until an appeals court freed them in June.

She said the new party will support Turkey's bid to enter the EU, which had lobbied hard for her release.

'Political ban'

"The world is changing," she said, "and Turkey cannot be kept away from this change."

The new party, which has not yet been named, will also lobby for a new constitution which guarantees more rights to Turkey's minorities.

The former MPs imprisoned with Mrs Zana were with her as she made the announcement in the Turkish capital, Ankara.

"We, former MPs once under a political ban and once seen as the bogeymen, sincerely want to serve democracy and peace," she told reporters.

EU demands

After the announcement, Mrs Zana went to court for a retrial on the charges for which she was originally imprisoned - alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which waged a bloody struggle for autonomy during the 1990s.

Lawyers for Mrs Zana and her three fellow ex-MPs say they are unlikely to be returned to prison because of the amount of time they have already served.

At Friday's hearing, judges gave the defence team more time to prepare their arguments and set 17 December as the date for their next court appearance.

Coincidentally, EU leaders are set to meet on that day to decide whether Turkey has met the requirements for talks aimed at eventual admittance into the 25-nation bloc.

EU leaders had demanded Turkey grant greater rights to its Kurdish minority as a key precondition for the talks.

Mrs Zana recently praised the Turkish government for its "revolutionary changes" aimed at meeting EU membership criteria.