BRUSSELS - The European Union would be making a "major strategic miscalculation" in closing the door on accession negotiations with Turkey, a top official of the US State Department warned here Monday.
"The decision made some time ago by the EU to open the door to Turkey was a major strategic decision," Nicholas Burns, undersecretary of state for political affairs, told journalists.
"Now that it is in question and that leading European politicians are beginning to say 'close the door', it is our view that it would be a major strategic miscalculation," he added.
Burns was speaking on the fringes of a meeting of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
"If Europeans turn away, it would be a major miscalculation," he went on. "The EU cannot be complete without Turkey."
The EU's executive body, the European Commission, recommended last week that Turkey's talks be partially suspended because Ankara refuses to adopt customs norms with Cyprus, as it must do with all EU states in order to join.
Ankara has demanded that the EU first ease the economic isolation of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognized only by Turkey which occupied the territory during a clash with Greece over the island in 1974.
Turkey's intransigence over the Cyprus issue led the commission to recommend the suspension of eight of the 35 "chapters" detailing the terms Turkey must meet in order to join the EU.
EU foreign ministers are due to meet on December 11 to decide whether to formally suspend the talks, which officially started in October 2005.
Burns stressed his country's support for Turkish accession to the 25-nation European bloc.
"Turkey has proven its democracy, its alliance with us for decades," he said.
"Historians will say it is one of these important decisions the Europeans made ... at the beginning of the 21st century, to open the EU up to this major Muslim secular democracy," he said.
12/04/2006 20:43 GMT