ANKARA, July 22 (AFP) - EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy met Turkish officials here Thursday in a bid to overcome Cyprus' exclusion from a customs union between Turkey and the pan-European bloc caused by the absence of Turkish-Cypriot diplomatic ties.
Turkey, which is not a member of the European Union, nonetheless entered into a customs union with the EU in 1995.
Cyprus joined the EU on May 1 but has so far been excluded from participation in the overall EU customs union with Turkey because it has no formal diplomatic ties to Ankara.
"It's obviously a problem that the EU-Turkey customs union is not yet extended to Cyprus, although Cyprus joined the EU and is entitled to the same treatment as other recently acceeding countries," Lamy told reporters after talks with Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.
"We understand it's a tricky problem but a tricky problem remains a problem," he said.
Long-divided Cyprus joined the EU on May 1 along with nine other nations, represented only by its internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot government in the south.
A last-ditch effort to reunify the island's Greek and Turkish communities before EU accession failed in April when the Greek Cypriots rejected a UN peace plan that Turkish Cypriots endorsed.
Cyprus has been split since 1974 when Turkey occupied the north in response to a Greek Cypriot coup in Nicosia aimed at uniting the island with Greece.
Turkey still keeps some 30,000 troops in the Turkish Cypriot north and does not recognize the Greek Cypriot administration.
Lamy said the customs union problem would not have a bearing on a crucial report that the European Commission, the EU executive arm, will draft in October on Turkey's progress towards meeting EU political criteria.
The report will constitute the basis on which EU leaders will decide in December whether to start accession talks with Ankara.
Lamy praised what he called "huge progress" in Turkish efforts to align with EU's democracy norms.
Gul expressed hope that the Commission would assess Turkey's progress fairly and recommend that EU leaders invite the Muslim nation to the negotiating table.
Lamy said they also discussed "some trade frictions and irritants here and there which are not terribly dramatic but which are on the to-do list ... and need to be done on the Turkish side."
He said the two sides should boost cooperation in the services sector and in government procurement, adding that EU investment in Turkey was below the desired level.