Turkish offer not enough

EU President Finland said yesterday a Turkish offer to open one port to Cypriot ships did not go far enough and it expected the bloc to approve a partial freeze of accession talks with Ankara next week.

"What Turkey has said is not enough... Turkey has not fulfilled its commitments," Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen told reporters of a requirement that Turkey extend a customs union with the EU to all members, including Cyprus.

Mr Vanhanen said he now expected EU countries to agree at a meeting of foreign ministers on Monday to suspend some areas of the entry talks as proposed by the European Commission.

"The Commission proposal I believe is quite near the compromise (acceptable to member states)," he said of the EU executive's proposal for slowing Turkish accession talks by suspending eight of 35 negotiation areas, or chapters.

Mr Vanhanen said such an outcome would leave the door open for Turkey to restart full negotiations later and should not mean a delay to its final entry, widely seen as over a decade away.

Ankara won renewed backing from Washington for its EU bid as President George W. Bush called Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to reaffirm his support, state Anatolian news agency said.

Finland said it was still seeking clarification of the Turkish proposal. Envoys said it had been made orally by Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul to Finnish counterpart Erkki Tuomioja.

The Turkish plan appeared to offer the opening of one port provisionally for a year and to state readiness to open an airport to flights from Cyprus if the EU allowed direct trade with northern Cyprus through a port and an airport.

However Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, whose self-declared state is recognised only by Ankara, denied the offer was conditioned on concessions from the EU, calling it a "package to promote cooperation" during a trip to Brussels.

EU capitals remained split at talks yesterday on the number of chapters to be suspended and on whether to insist on a formal review of Turkey's progress on solving the ports dispute before restarting discussions on any frozen chapters.