The lira firmed as far as 1.8802 against the dollar during the intervention from 1.8950 beforehand. It stood at 1.8876 at 0911 GMT.

It hit a record low level of 1.9215 in late trade last Wednesday due to concerns about monetary policy measures and ended 2010 some 22 percent weaker on the year against the dollar.

The central bank also intervened directly in the forex market on Friday, selling nearly $2 billion, and sold another $750 million in an auction, boosting the lira as far as 1.8510 against the dollar.

The central bank said on Monday it will hold a one-week intraday repo auction instead of its regular one-week fixed-rate repo auction.

Central Bank Governor Erdem Başçı said last week the bank could hold intraday one-week repos within the framework of the bank's open market operations strategy on "exceptional days". He also said that the bank may sell foreign currency directly on such days without defining exceptional days.

Turkish economy minister said on Monday Turkey's December exports rose 4.5 percent to $12.1 billion.