PM can't build coalition as new election looms

Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Tuesday told President Recep Tayyip Erdogan he had failed to form a coalition government, paving the way for new general elections just months after June polls.

In a major setback for Erdogan, the ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, lost its overall majority in the June 7 legislative polls for the first time since it came to power in 2002, raising the prospect of the first coalition government in more than a decade.

But in a meeting at the presidential palace in Ankara, Davutoglu returned to Erdogan the mandate he received from the president on July 9 to begin coalition talks with opposition parties, the presidency said in a statement.