Ankara  - Turkish President Abdullah Gul Tuesday pardoned Islamist former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan, 81, who was under house arrest for embezzlement.

Gul's office said in Ankara the decision had been taken on grounds of Erbakan's ill-health.

Erbakan was placed under house arrest in May after a court ruled that his Islamist Refah Welfare Party, which was banned in 1998, had misused funds.

Turkey's military pushed Erbakan out of office in 1997 ahead of a coup in 1980.

Gul made his initial political career under Erbakan's wing, but later joined the reformers. In 2001 he was one of the founding members, together with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, of the ruling AKP Justice and Development Party. (dpa)