Turkey has threatened to reconsider its ties with the European Union if the 15-nation bloc fails to set a firm date for the opening of accession talks next year.
Turkey's Foreign Minister, Mr Sukru Sina Gurel, said: "If the European Union does not decide to open accession talks with Turkey in 2003, Turkish-EU ties will suffer and Turkey will have to reconsider all aspects of its ties with the Union".
The threat came as the draft declaration of a two-day summit of EU leaders was released in Brussels. The declaration welcomed Ankara's recent reform drive to catch up with European standards but made no mention of a date for accession talks.
"Turkey has taken important steps" towards meeting the political and economic criteria for joining the EU, according to the document which was due to be adopted later today at the end of the meeting in Brussels. "This has brought forward the opening of accession negotiations," the draft said.
Turkey argues it is eligible for accession talks as the parliament adopted in August a package of key human rights reforms demanded by the EU, including the abolition of the death penalty and cultural rights for the Kurds.
It has been pressing the pan-European bloc to set a firm date for accession talks at its Copenhagen summit in December.
But European Commission chief Mr Romano Prodi said yesterday that Ankara was unlikely to get a starting date for membership talks this year.
Earlier this month, the European Commission angered Turkey when it said in a report that the country was not yet ready to start membership talks as it did not meet the necessary political criteria.
But it recommended that Cyprus, the eastern Mediterranean island whose northern third was occupied by Turkey, a NATO member, in 1974, be formally invited to join the Union in 2004, along with a number of former ex-communist Eastern European countries.
AFP