Two people have been injured in a bomb attack on the offices of Turkey's ruling party in Istanbul amid an upsurge of political violence in the country.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, which comes against the background of more than a week of street clashes between police and Kurdish protesters.

The Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, made a call for national unity in parliament to halt the disturbances. In an address he said Turkey would not give in to violence.

Sixteen people have been killed in a week of attacks and clashes between security forces and Kurdish protesters in the southeast of the country.

More than 30,000 people, mostly Kurds, have been killed in the separatist conflict since the Kurdistan Workers' Party took up arms against the state in 1984.

The EU, which is in membership talks with Turkey, has urged Ankara not to respond with what it called "excessive use of force."

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