Turkey's government unveiled a £6bn investment package yesterday for the country's south-eastern provinces, taking a tentative step to counter separatist sentiment and to improve living standards in one of Europe's most impoverished regions.

Most of the money is to be spent on irrigation and hydroelectric schemes under the banner of the South Anatolia Project. This vast state project, initiated in the 1970s, aims to harness the region's rivers, including the Tigris and Euphrates, and to boost farm production and electricity generation.