ANKARA (AFP) — Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday he would hold three-way talks with French and German leaders on Turkey's EU membership bid, which the two heavyweights of the bloc oppose.
"The meeting will be held in Germany and the three of us will discuss together the process ahead of us," Erdogan told a press conference, without giving a date.
The meeting between Erdogan, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to take place in the first half of the year, a German diplomat said.
Sarkozy has been particularly vocal in his opposition to Turkey's accession to the European Union, arguing that the mainly Muslim country does not belong to Europe.
French objections have contributed to slow progress in Turkey's membership talks, which opened in 2005.
Germany, meanwhile, advocates a special partnership with Turkey rather than its full-fledged accession to the bloc.
"The three of them have agreed to come together, but the date has not yet been determined," an aide to Erdogan told AFP. "They will discuss Turkey's European Union candidacy and other issues concerning the three countries."
A diplomat from the German embassy here said: "There is an idea for such a meeting that will probably take place in the first half of the year."
Erdogan insisted that full membership remains Ankara's objective.
"We hope that new chapters (in the accession talks) will be opened during Slovenia's presidency," he said, referring to the six-month rotating chairmanship of the bloc that Slovenia will hold until July.
Erdogan pledged that Ankara would press ahead with reforms to catch up with EU political and economic norms.
"Our efforts will continue with determination," he said.
Turkey has so far opened talks in six of the 35 policy fields that candidates are required to complete before accession.
The EU froze negotiations on eight chapters in 2006 in response to Turkey's refusal to grant trade privileges to Cyprus, which Ankara does not recognise, under a customs union pact with the bloc.
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