ISTANBUL, Dec 11 (AFP) - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said he is optimistic that European Union leaders will ease conditions for Turkey when they convene for a critical decision on the country's membership bid next week, Anatolia news agency reported.
"I believe we will get the result we expect regarding accession talks... next week," Erdogan said late Friday on arrival from Brussels where he met with EU officials in the run-up to a crunch December 16-17 summit.
"Even though there are some different approaches, we saw that these approaches are changing in a positive direction," he was quoted as saying.
EU leaders are set to give the green light for the start of accession talks with Turkey at a Brussels summit, but they are also expected to attach tough conditions for the Muslim nation, an official candidate since 1999.
Ankara is uneasy that some EU members are pressing for conditions that may ultimately result not in full membership for Turkey, but an alternative status widely referred to as a "priviliged partnership."
"We don't want to be faced with extra criteria ... The game has already begun, there should be no new rules," Erdogan told reporters in Brussels on Friday.
Turkish leaders have also firmly rejected EU demands that Ankara endorses the internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot government of EU member Cyprus, which it does not recognize.
Ankara blames the Greek Cypriots for the current deadlock, arguing that problems between Turkey and Cyprus would have been resolved if the Greek Cypriots had not voted down a UN peace plan to end the 30-year-division of the island's Greek and Turkish communities at an April referendum.
The breakaway Turkish Cypriot enclave in the north of the island, whose government Ankara recognizes, had overwhelmingly supported the plan.
12/11/2004 08:51 GMT - AFP