European Union leaders and Turkey today agreed terms on which Ankara will start membership talks with the bloc next October, an EU government official said.
"There is a global agreement on the Turkey part of the final statement," said the official.
The deal, four decades after Ankara signed an association agreement as a first step to membership in 1963, was reached after tough negotiations with the 25-nation bloc, which insisted Turkey must move towards normalising relations with Cyprus.
The landmark talks would eventually change the face both of the EU and of Turkey, a Nato ally that sits on the hinge of southeast Europe and the Middle East.