Vienna - Opponents of the Turkish Ilisu dam seized rooms in the Oesterreichische Kontrollbank AG (OeKB) in Vienna on Wednesday, calling on the bank to pull out of the project on ecological and cultural grounds.

Austrian, German and Swiss export guarantees worth an estimated 450 million euros (577 million dollars) underpin the financing of the project to dam the Tigris river in south-eastern Turkey and build a power plant.

Some 10 protesters from the organization ECA Watch had peacefully entered the bank's premises and called for talks with the management, Kontrollbank spokesman Peter Gumpinger said. "They will get them," he said.

"If it stayed involved, OeKB would share responsibility for 65,000 people losing their homes, animal species becoming extinct and the most valuable cultural assets being destroyed, including Hasankeyf, one of the world's oldest cities," ECA Watch said in a statement.

In early October, Austria, Germany and Switzerland sent a warning letter to Turkey, calling on the country to fulfil ecological requirements and come up with a relocation plan for the affected population.

ECA Watch, which monitors export credit agencies like Kontrollbank, suspects that the bank has already decided to stay involved in the project, even before the letter's December 12 deadline for implementing the remedies.

Kontrollbank had not finished its evaluation yet, Gumpinger said. "Our reports will be critical and identify shortcomings," he said. (dpa)