'Turkey's EU entry would halt integration'- Giscard d'Estaing

The architect of the European Union Constitution has warned the 25-nation bloc against starting accession talks with Turkey next month, saying Ankara's entry would kill off hopes of tighter political integration.

Speaking on Friday just 10 days before the EU launches membership talks with Ankara on October 3, former French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing said most French voters opposed Turkish membership.

"They fear that, four months after the referendum (on the EU constitution), this decision is being taken behind their backs," Mr Giscard d'Estaing told a conference of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), France's governing centre-right party.

Concern about Turkish membership was blamed in part for French and Dutch voters' rejection of the EU constitution in referendums earlier this year.

French presidential hopeful Nicolas Sarkozy, the UMP leader, has steadfastly opposed Turkish EU entry and wants the Union to offer Ankara a special economic partnership instead.

President Jacques Chirac has backed Turkish membership and said voters would have the final say on whether Ankara will join the union in a referendum.

But Mr Giscard d'Estaing said French voters realised that if accession talks were to begin France would not have the political weight to bloc Turkish membership if, after 10-15 years of negotiations, Ankara met all entry requirements.

"If one wants to pursue European construction, one can only rule out Turkey's entry into its institutional system," Mr Giscard d'Estaing said, adding there was a contradiction between the pursuit of Europe's political integration and Turkey's entry into the bloc.

"These two projects are incompatible," Mr Giscard d'Estaing said. Turkish membership would bring integration to a halt, which explained British support for Turkish membership, he said to applause.

The phrase stating that accession is the "common goal of the negotiations" should be stripped from any mandate given to the EU Commission in talks with Turkey, he said.

The relationship between the United States, Mexico and Canada could make a better model for ties between the European Union and Turkey, he said.

French leaders, anxious to show they have heeded the message of voters who rejected the EU referendum, have in recent weeks stepped up pressure on Turkey to recognise EU member Cyprus.

The European Union views the Greek Cypriot government which joined the bloc last year as the sole legitimate authority for the divided Mediterranean island. Ankara backs breakaway Turkish Cypriots in the north of the island and refuses to recognise the Nicosia government.