BRUSSELS, Dec 17 (AFP) - Turkey could be asked only for a verbal commitment to recognise Cyprus before it can join the European Union, EU sources here said Friday as leaders sought to strike a deal logjamming a key summit.
Camiel Eurlings, a Dutch lawmaker who is the European Parliament rapporteur on Turkey, said EU leaders were debating whether Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan should be asked to make the pledge verbally.
A Turkish diplomat, who did not want to be named, also said there was "work going on in drawing up a text in which Turkey declares its intent (on Cyprus) but which does not entail recognition."
A draft text drawn up earlier referred to a written commitment by Ankara to recognise the Greek Cypriot government -- something that Turkey, which only acknowledges the Turkish Cypriot government in the north of the Mediterranean island -- is deeply reluctant to do.
EU leaders have made Ankara's recognition of Cyprus one of a series of tough conditions for opening membership talks as promised on October 3 next year.
In the draft text, Ankara would Friday initial a protocol to an agreement which it signed with the EU's forerunner in 1963, but updated to include the bloc's 10 newest members, including Cyprus.
However, Turkish diplomats had earlier said they were "disappointed" at the conditions and saw "slim chances" of an agreement, prompting EU leaders to try to seek a compromise to save the summit here.
The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Greece then huddled with their Dutch counterpart Jan Peter Balkenende, who is chairing the talks, to save the summit.
"The proposal being debated by the Council (of EU leaders) is that Erdogan declares verbally that he will sign the protocol... and that there would be a reference to the declaration in the summit conclusions," Eurling said.
An EU diplomat, speaking under cover of anonymity, said that "instead of imposing the obligation of signing the protocol... Turkey should undertake by its own declaration to do so."
If Ankara accepted, the declaration would be made immediately -- breaking the deadlock.
"The (Dutch) presidency has developed a proposal with the agreement of the three big countries," another EU diplomat said, referring to Britain, France and Germany. "The presidency is still working on this proposal."
Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since Turkish troops invaded its northern part in 1974, and the question of its recognition is still a deeply bitter .
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told BBC radio earlier that "it's not about recognition with a capital R," suggesting that signing the protocol was not the same as a legal acknowledgement of the Cypriot government.
Meanwhile as the day wore on diplomats said that Erdogan held a new session of talks early in the afternoon with Balkenende, as well as EU commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso, Britain's Tony Blair and Germany's Gerhard Schroeder.
12/17/2004 13:12 GMT - AFP