EU's Rehn urges new Turkish govt to step up reforms

BRUSSELS, July 23 (Reuters) The new Turkish government that will emerge from yesterday's parliamentary election must make a new push on the reforms required of Turkey in stalled European Union entry talks, the bloc's enlargement chief said today.

''It is essential that the new government will relaunch legal and economic reforms with full determination and concrete results,'' Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn told reporters in Brussels of the election victory of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's Islamist-rooted AK Party.

Rehn called on Ankara to resolve a trade dispute with Cyprus that has been holding back accession talks begun in October 2005, and said the EU expected to open up negotiations in some reform areas, known as ''chapters'' by the end of the year.

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