YouTube has appealed to Turkey's Constitutional Court to lift a ban the government slapped on the video-sharing service after audio of a top-level security meeting was posted on the site.

The appeal asks the court to "immediately" lift the ban on the site, a source familiar with the case told Agence France Presse Monday on condition of anonymity.

YouTube will remain blocked in Turkey, despite the end to a similar controversial ban on Twitter, after a court backtracked on an earlier ruling to grant access to the video-sharing site.

The court in the capital Ankara on Friday lifted a March 27 government decision blocking access to YouTube, saying the blanket ban violated human rights, and instead restricting 15 videos.

A Turkish court Friday ruled against a government ban on YouTube that came after the video-sharing website was used to spread damaging leaked audio files from a state security meeting.

An Ankara court ruled against the March 27 block, Hurriyet daily reported online, a day after the government complied with a Constitutional Court ruling and unblocked Twitter in Turkey.

Turkey's secular opposition on Tuesday rejected the results of Ankara and Istanbul mayoral elections claimed as victories by the Islamic-rooted party of Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan, citing "irregularities".

More than 1,000 people demonstrated outside the elections authority in the capital Ankara, where the incumbent mayor of Erdogan's ruling party has declared victory with a wafer-thin margin of about one percent.

Turkey's premier is bound to tighten and extend his grip on power, emboldened by sweeping local poll wins that came despite damaging graft claims and Internet clampdowns, analysts said Monday.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after delivering a rousing "balcony speech" to thousands of jubilant followers overnight, is now almost certain to run for president this year or seek a fourth term as prime minister, they said.

Turkey's Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed victory for his Islamic-rooted party in Sunday's key local elections and warned his foes they will "pay the price" for plotting his downfall.

"Those who attacked Turkey got disappointed," Erdogan told a jubilant crowd of thousands, speaking from the balcony of his party's Ankara headquarters after months of turmoil marked by street clashes, sleaze claims and an Internet clampdown.

Femen activists on Sunday staged a bare-breasted protest against Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has come under fire over an Internet crackdown, during crucial local elections.

The two women, who had the words "Ban Erdogan" written across their chests, were quickly covered up and arrested after flashing their breasts in the Istanbul polling station where Erdogan had been due to vote.

Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party took a strong early lead in local elections Sunday, TV channels reported, despite turbulent months marked by mass protests, corruption scandals and Internet blocks.

If the initial trend holds up, it would considerably brighten the outlook for Erdogan, who had gone on a weeks-long campaign marathon ahead of the vote widely seen as a referendum on his 11-year-rule.

Turkey's Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan was to hit the home stretch of a campaign marathon Saturday on the eve of local elections, as police hunted those behind a spate of damaging online leaks.

Erdogan and his Islamic-leaning party, after over a decade in power, face the first electoral test following months of political turmoil, with mass street protests and a corruption scandal spread via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Embroiled in political turmoil, Turkey's leader has declared war on a shadowy enemy, a Muslim cleric he accuses of running a parallel "deep state" from faraway rural Pennsylvania.

Out on the campaign trail ahead of Sunday's local elections, there are few doubts about who Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has in mind when he vows to "liquidate" his foes.