Turkey rebuffs Vatican

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has rebuffed comments by a top Vatican official that Muslim Turkey should drop its quest to join the European Union on cultural grounds, saying the papal state has no say in the matter.

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, doctrinal head of the Roman Catholic Church, said in a magazine interview this week that Turkey should seek its future in a grouping of Islamic nations rather than try to join a European bloc with Christian roots.

"The Vatican is a religious state. It is not an EU member. We discuss and assess (our EU bid) with EU member countries," Turkish newspapers quoted Mr Erdogan yesterday as saying.

EU leaders are due to decide in December whether to start accession talks with Turkey, a secular state of 70 million people with a majority Muslim population.

Mr Ratzinger's comments, in which he said Turkey had always been "in permanent contrast to Europe" and noted that the Ottoman Empire once threatened Vienna and fought wars in the Balkans, have caused anger in the Turkish press.