Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said he is to return the mandate to form a government to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan after having exhausted all options "all options".

The BBC quotes him as saying he would return the mandate "if necessary" after meeting with the head of state.

His comments, however, lack any mention of timing, and several Turkish media outlets suggest this could happen by the end of August 18, Tuesday.  

August 23 is the deadline to from a cabinet in Turkey, where parliamentary elections on June 7 failed to produce a clear winner, with no party reaching majority.

The People's Republican Party (CHP), the second-largest party and the main opposition to the outgoing government, has demanded that it should now be handed the mandate to form a government, but "speculation is growing" over whether President Erdogan will take the step, H?rriyet Daily News reports.

Recent talks between PM Davutoglu's Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the CHP failed, and a meeting between the Prime Minister and the leader of the third-largest force, nationalist MHP, did not lead to a coalition agreement.

Critics accuse President Erdogan, who before taking over in 2014 had been PM for eleven years, of doing everything to slide the country toward early elections which he hopes could help him regain the majority he lost in June and which his party had enjoyed since rising to power.

CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu maintains that the 45-day period, which Erdogan says is needed to form a government after official election results have been announced, is no "extremely binding" since it is not part of the constitution.

Both he and pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) co-Chair Selahattin Demirtas are calling on Erdogan to hand out the mandate to CHP.

Demirtas is quoted by H?rriyet as saying that his party would be happy to meet and discuss a possible coalition with the CHP if it is given the  opportunity to form a cabinet.

Erdogan, however, has the right to either give the mandate to another party or call for an interim government to run the country until early elections are held.

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