Prime Minister Tammam Salam revealed on Tuesday that he recently contacted Qatari and Turkish authorities to help Lebanon guarantee the safe release of the security personnel taken hostage by Islamist gunmen in the northeastern town of Arsal.

“Speaker Nabih Berri and I seem to have confluence on contacting Qatari and Turkish authorities to help the government ensure the safe release of the troops,” Salam said in comments published in As Safir newspaper on Tuesday.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Monday on winning the election for the Turkish presidency and underscored the country's pivotal role in the troubled region.

"We are currently facing difficult challenges in the region," she said in a message sent to Erdogan and released by her office.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan will on August 28 succeed Abdullah Gul as president of Turkey, after his first round election victory on Sunday.

The elections were the first time that Turkey has directly elected its head of state and the novelty of the situation has given rise to a degree of uncertainty as to what happens next.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday was on course for a crushing first-round victory in presidential elections to become a powerful head of state, amid fears his country is creeping towards one-man rule.

Erdogan was set to win 54.1 percent of the vote, way ahead of his main opposition rival Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu on 37.4 percent, Turkish television channels said, in results based on a 60 percent vote count.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is favourite to win Sunday's presidential election, climbed from a humble youth in Istanbul to become one of the most significant but controversial leaders anywhere in the Islamic world.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday roused tens of thousands of supporters with a call for a strong and new Turkey, as he held his final mass rally ahead of presidential polls he is widely expected to win.

"God willing a new Turkey will be established tomorrow. A strong Turkey will be born out of its ashes once more tomorrow," Erdogan told cheering loyalists in the conservative central Anatolian city of Konya.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday called on voters to "explode the ballot boxes" with a mass show of support for his bid to become Turkey's new president in weekend polls.

Holding his penultimate mass rally in the Turkish capital Ankara ahead of Sunday's elections, Erdogan appeared supremely confident of garnering the majority needed for victory in the first round.

The main opposition candidate in Turkey's presidential election rejected plans for a strong presidency as a "fantasy" of his rival Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that would not be accepted by the Turkish people.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, a soft-spoken, bespectacled intellectual put forward by Turkey's main opposition parties, is expected to come second behind Erdogan in Sunday's polls, when Turks will directly elect their head of state for the first time.

Up to 800 people from Iraq's Yazidi community have fled across the border to Turkey after escaping a lightning offensive by jihadists from the Islamic State (IS) group, Turkish officials said on Thursday.

The Yazidis are the latest victims of violence in the Middle East to find sanctuary in Turkey, after Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's open door policy resulted in the influx of over one million Syrian refugees into the country.

With a youthful and dynamic candidate, Turkey's main Kurdish political force is seeking to broaden its appeal in presidential polls where the votes of the Kurdish minority are set to play a crucial role.