Turkey will meet the final condition for opening EU membership talks on October 3 when it signs a protocol on Wednesday extending its current EU ties to the bloc's 10 new member states, an EU diplomat said on Monday.
The senior diplomat said the accord extending the customs union to Cyprus, whose government Turkey does not recognise, would be signed by ambassadors in Brussels on the same day that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan meets British Prime Minister Tony Blair, holder of the EU presidency, in London.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said it could not confirm the date of the signing, but a Turkish diplomat reaffirmed Ankara's intention to issue a statement making clear the signing does not amount to recognition of the Greek Cypriot government.
"This is a legal necessity for Turkey. We have to make our position clear, in written form," he told Reuters, saying the declaration would be issued "at an appropriate time".
Cyprus joined the EU last year despite the failure of a UN-brokered peace plan to reunite the divided Mediterranean island, which Turkish Cypriots backed but Greek Cypriots vetoed.
Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974 in response to a coup in Nicosia engineered by Greece's then-ruling military junta. It maintains some 35,000 troops in the north of the island.
The EU diplomat noted that the EU had not made it a condition for opening negotiations that Ankara recognise Cyprus before the talks start.
He said the EU would have to consider the form and content of any political declaration Turkey might make on the subject.
The bloc's 25 leaders last month reaffirmed their decision to begin talks with Turkey, with the goal of membership, despite growing public hostility in western Europe - a factor in French and Dutch "No" votes to the EU constitution.
A pan-European opinion survey published by the European Commission last week indicated 52 percent of EU citizens oppose Turkish accession and only 35 percent support it.
The poll suggested 80 percent of Austrians, 74 percent of Germans and 70 percent of French were against admitting the poor, sprawling, mainly Muslim nation of 70 million citizens straddling Europe and the Middle East.
Britain, which took over the EU chair for 6 months on July 1, has championed Turkey's bid, highlighting the strategic value of embracing a large Muslim democracy and Nato ally.
The European Commission concluded last October that Ankara had sufficiently met the EU's criteria on democracy, human and minority rights and the rule of law to begin membership talks.
EU leaders last December set several conditions for starting negotiations, requiring Turkey to bring into force several packages of legal reforms, which it did in April, as well as signing the customs union protocol.
The EU has said accession will take at least a decade and negotiations are an open-ended process whose outcome cannot be guaranteed in advance.
The 25-nation bloc must agree a negotiating mandate unanimously for talks to start. The executive Commission put forward a proposal in June, but Cyprus and Austria have sought amendments while France has reserved its position.
The Turkish diplomat said Wednesday's Blair-Erdogan talks would cover EU issues including Cyprus and the protocol, as well as the fight against terrorism.
"This (British EU) presidency is very important for Turkey. We have high expectations from the visit because the United Kingdom firmly supports Turkey's bid to join the EU," he said.
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