British Prime Minister Tony Blair is due in Ankara today for talks expected to address Turkey's bid to join the EU as well as bilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism.
Blair is due to meet his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer during the one-day visit. Blair and Erdogan are to give a joint press conference following the talks.
The prime minister's visit is the first since the UK and Turkey agreed to hold regular bilateral talks, in the wake of the November suicide attacks on two synagogues, the British consulate and an HSBC office in Istanbul.
About 60 people, including British consul Roger Short, were killed in the blasts, which have been blamed on Turkish extremists linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
"Turkish-European relations, Iraq, the Middle East, Cyprus and the NATO summit [to be held June 28-29 in Istanbul] will be on the agenda of talks," a Turkish diplomat told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The diplomat stressed that London's position of influence within the EU made it an important interlocutor for Ankara, which is seeking a start date for negotiations to join the 25-member union.
Turkey, a formal EU candidate since 1999, has passed a raft of democracy reforms to meet the union's political criteria and hopes to win a nod from EU leaders to begin entry talks when they assess Ankara's progress in December.
The British government has been an outspoken supporter of Turkey's eventual integration into the EU -- describing it as both desirable and inevitable.
Blair and French President Jacques Chirac both insisted earlier this month that Turkey would eventually join the EU, but that the process would be long and challenging.
"What determines the speed and process of Turkey's application for European membership are the rules. The rules we set out for all European countries are the rules that we should apply to Turkey too," the British prime minister said in Paris.
Concerning the situation in Iraq, allegations of abuse of Iraqi prisoners by US and British troops have shocked public opinion in neighboring Turkey.
Turkish political leaders have denounced the "inhumane" and "repugnant" behavior of US troops following the reports of abuse, but they have not directly criticized the UK.
On the issue of Cyprus, the southern part of which became part of the EU on May 1, Ankara is expected to press the UK to lift its economic sanctions against the isolated Turkish north of the island.
The Turkish Cypriots had given overwhelming support to a UN plan to end the island's division -- which hoped to reunify the island before it joined the EU -- but the internationally-recognized south rejected the proposal.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 after Turkey invaded and occupied the northern third of Cyprus in response to a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.
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