'Turkey must show tolerance after killings'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said yesterday she expected Turkey to take action to show it was tolerant of Christianity after the killing of three people, including a German, at a Bible publishing house in Turkey.

Ms Merkel, whose country holds the European Union's rotating presidency, added that the killings would not affect Turkey's negotiations to join the bloc - but they were worrying.

"This episode has no influence on the accession negotiations, which will continue with the result open. But this episode is a cause for concern," she told the Muenchner Merkur newspaper.

Three Christian men were found on Wednesday with their throats slit at the Zirve publishing house in Malatya, a city in the southeast of Turkey.

The killings came amid heightened political tensions between Turkey's powerful secular elite, including army generals and judges, and the religious-minded AK Party government over next month's presidential elections in the mainly Muslim country.

"Everything must be done to inhibit a climate that makes such appalling deaths possible," Ms Merkel told the paper in an an interview.

"I expect clear action from the government in Ankara (to show) that intolerance of Christianity and other religions has no chance," she added.

Merkel's coalition government supports Turkish EU membership, but the German leader has told her own Christian Democrat (CDU) party that she personally opposes full membership. Instead she favours a "privileged partnership" for Turkey within the bloc.

Ms Merkel said that talks on Turkish entry to the European Union would take a long time. Since becoming chancellor, she has stuck to the line agreed with her coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD), to continue talks with Turkey.