ANKARA - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is planning to attend a summit this weekend aimed at launching a Mediterranean union despite Turkish reservations about the French initiative, an aide said Tuesday.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy telephoned Erdogan and personally invited him to Sunday's gathering in Paris.

"The prime minister said he will attend unless something extraordinary happens," Erdogan's spokesman Akif Beki told AFP, without giving details.

Ankara has been hesitating about whether to embrace the Union for the Mediterranean, an initiative spearheaded by Sarkozy, because of doubts that it may be an attempt to delude the country's European Union membership prospects.

Sarkozy is a staunch opponent of Turkey's EU accession and advocates a "special partnership" rather than full membership -- a proposal Ankara categorically rejects.

Turkish diplomats took part in a meeting last week to draft a final resolution to be adopted at Sunday's summit and secured "significant" changes in the text, Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said earlier Tuesday, without elaborating.

"There are several more issues on which talks will continue," he said, adding that diplomats would meet again to put the final touches on the draft on the eve of the summit.

Sarkozy has invited leaders from about 40 countries, including Arab nations and Israel, for the launch of the initiative, aimed at boosting cooperation between EU and Mediterranean rim states.

"We are not jumping on this initiative, but at the same time we are making preparations and keeping in touch" with the organisers, a Turkish government official said, adding that other countries also had reservations about the project.

Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi is the only leader so far to have snubbed the invitation. He strongly criticised the idea of a Mediterranean union last month, saying it threatened Arab and African unity efforts.

France's vocal opposition to Turkey's EU accession and attempts to slow down its accession talks, coupled with pressure on Ankara to recognise the killings of Armenians during World War I as genocide, have cast a pall on bilaterel ties in recent years.

Turkey has accused French leaders of exploiting Turkey's EU bid in domestic politics despite the fact that Paris gave its consent to the opening of membership talks with Ankara in 2005.

su/boc

07/08/2008 11:35 GMT