Turkey picked a new chief negotiator for its European Union bid, state news agency Anatolian said late yesterday, as the country tries to revive its flagging accession process.

The post formerly held by Foreign Minister Ali Babacan was transferred to Egemen Bagis ahead of a trip by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to Brussels next week.

Bagis is an Erdogan adviser on foreign affairs who speaks fluent English and French.

Turkey began accession talks in 2005 but has made slow progress due to what analysts attribute to domestic politics, lack of enthusiasm for the bloc at home and a lack of appetite for further enlargement among EU states.

Babacan, criticised in some quarters for a lacklustre performance in EU ties, has been busy dealing with the Caucasus and the Middle East. He is likely to focus much of his time on Turkey's two-year term as member of the UN Security Council.

By appointing a new EU coordinator, Erdogan could try to show Brussels the government is serious about boosting its EU membership bid.

The EU's latest Turkey progress report, issued in November, rapped the country for insufficient reforms in human rights, freedom of speech, and the power of the military.

Turkey's ruling Islamist-rooted AK Party was nearly closed by a court last year in what was widely seen as a move by the country's secular elite, made up of the military and the judiciary, to oust the party following a reform attempt to lift a ban of the Islamic headscarf in universities.

Predominantly Muslim Turkey has widely been split over the role of religion in the officially secular republic.

Brussels opened two new chapters last month, bringing the total number of chapters opened to 10, of which one has been completed.