BRUSSELS, Sept 13 (AFP) - British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Monday dismissed suggestions that public opposition to Turkey's EU membership bid could adversely influence a forthcoming referendum on the EU's constitution.
Debate over Ankara's EU hopes is heating up ahead of an EU decision due in December on whether to start membership negotiations with the vast majority Muslim country.
Some suggest that public antipathy to Turkey joining the currently 25-member bloc could translate into more "no" votes in referenda due to be held in a number of EU states on a first-ever EU constitution.
"There is a real risk (of) that," said Cypriot Foreign Minister George Iacovou.
But Straw, whose government has agreed to hold a referendum on the constitution despite the notoriously eurosceptic British electorate, disagreed.
"I think the risk of that is tiny," he said, underlining that an EU summit in December, if it gives the green light for Ankara, is set to agree on a date for starting negotiations, but not a target date for accession.
"Everybody including the Turkish government accepts that it will be many years before Turkey is finally ready to join the EU.
Britain has made it clear it wants the EU to approve a start-date for Turkey. "We in the United Kingdom are profoundly and absolutely committed to determining a start date for those negotiations in December," said Straw.
And he said the Turkish and constitutional issues were totally separate.
"So far as the UK is concerned there is almost unamimity across the political spectrum (on Turkey). It has never featured in all the discussions we have had about the constitution," he said.