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A Turkish court is due to deliver its verdict in the trial of hundreds of army officers accused of plotting against the Islamist-rooted government, BBC reported.

Prosecutors say "Operation Sledgehammer" was a conspiracy to trigger a military coup.

The defendants deny the charges, saying the alleged plot was a planned military exercise regularly held by the army.

Turkey's military has long seen itself as the guarantor of the country's secular constitution.

It staged three coups between 1960 and 1980 and has a history of tension with the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Prosecutors have called for the 365 military officers in the case to each be jailed for up to 20 years.

On Thursday the court in Silivri, near Istanbul, heard the final testimonies. Gen Dogan Cetin, former commander of Turkey's First Army, branded the two-year trial "unfair and unlawful."

He is accused of being the mastermind behind the 2003 alleged plot.

Gen Bilgin Balanli told the court: "This verdict will not be made about us, it will be made against the Turkish armed forces."

Prosecutors say the accused had planned to bomb mosques in Istanbul and start a conflict with neighbouring Greece to trigger a military coup.

Relatives and supporters of the officers chanted slogans and sang the national anthem outside the court on Thursday.

Other former military officers - including the former head of the Turkish armed forces Gen Ilker Basbug - are involved in another trial alleging conspiracy against the government.

Prosecutors say the "Ergenekon" plot relates to a shadowy network of ultra-nationalists and secularists hostile to the AKP.

The network is accused of plotting to undermine and topple the government.