EU faces early Turkey crisis at ministerial meeting

BRUSSELS, June 11 (Reuters) The European Union faces an earlier-than-expected crisis over Turkey's entry bid at a ministerial meeting tomorrow after Cyprus moved to block the conclusion of Ankara's first detailed accession negotiations.

Turkey, already under pressure from Brussels for slow reforms, has been hoping to conclude the first and easiest of 35 detailed policy ''chapters'' with the EU tomorrow on the sidelines of an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Luxembourg.

But bitter rival Cyprus, an existing EU member, said on Friday it would not allow the conclusion of the science and research chapter without reference to Ankara's obligation to recognise and normalise ties with Nicosia.

The deadlock makes it unclear if Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul will still travel to Luxembourg on Monday for a regular meeting with EU counterparts on the accession process.

The issue will top the agenda of the foreign ministers' meeting and if no solution can be found, looks set to cast a shadow over a summit of EU leaders later in the week and the final days of the six-monthly Austrian EU presidency.

It is also an unwelcome diversion for Croatia as it advances it EU entry bid by concluding the science and technology chapter tomorrow and Albania, due to take the key first step towards EU entry by signing a Stabilisation and Association Agreement with the EU in Luxembourg.

An Austrian presidency official said the weekend had seen intense telephone diplomacy, with Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik speaking to Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyanni and EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, and the European Commission to Cyprus.

''The telephones are ringing constantly,'' the Austrian presidency official said.

Rehn told Reuters on Saturday there was still a chance of resolving the dispute but Gul appeared set for another humiliating last-minute wait as occurred before Turkey opened talks with the EU last Oct. 3.

Then he was forced to sit for hours in Ankara waiting for EU ministers to agree the wording of a declaration.

ENLARGEMENT FATIGUE Turkey's EU membership was never doing to be trouble free, with many Europeans, already suffering from ''enlargement fatigue'' after 10 mainly Eastern European states joined the bloc in 2004, opposed to membership of a poor, largely Muslim state that would take the sprawling bloc's borders to the Middle East.

And problems over Cyprus had been expected -- with Rehn himself warning dramatically of a ''train crash'' over Turkey's accession -- but not until later in the year.

The Austrian presidency official said the presidency would table a proposal rejected by Cyprus last week containing reference to a September 2005 EU statement on Turkey's obligations, but not the explicit references Nicosia is seeking on recognition and normalisation.

However, as a sop to Cyprus, the presidency or the Commission could in opening remarks in meetings with Turkey mention the recognition and normalisation issue.

The official said there was also talk of ''provisionally'' closing the chapter. ''It means we can always come back to it, since nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.'' Diplomats say the Cypriots already have the promise of a review by the EU's executive Commission of Turkey's compliance with the Ankara protocol to open ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus, the deadline for which is Dec. 31.

EU diplomats hope what they are seeing is just a warning shot from Cyprus to make clear the end-year deadline is serious and Nicosia is ready to play spoiler for a long time if Ankara does not comply.

''The big question is what Cyprus really wants. We are not really sure,'' one said.

REUTERS CH PM1641