BRUSSELS, Dec 17 (AFP) - Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said Friday that his country, whose population is overwhelmingly opposed to Turkey's EU accession according to polls, will hold a referendum on Ankara's EU hopes.
He was speaking after European Union (EU) leaders hammered out an agreement to launch EU membership talks next October, which are expected to last for at least a decade.
"If the negotiations produce a positive result, the people will be consulted before membership," he told reporters. "At the end of the process the Austrian people will have the last word, not just the parliament."
Austrians are the most opposed people in the EU to Turkey's EU accession: only 28 percent were in favour, according to a recent poll.
"I think it is an important decision in a democracy like Austria," Schuessel added, saying he would make a proposal for a referendum as soon as he returned to Vienna Friday evening.
On the eve of the EU summit Schuessel warned that the EU must be sure it has the "capacity to absorb" Turkey before it gives a green light to the vast Muslim country's hopes of joining the bloc..
"The Union's capacity to absorb (new member states) must be taken into account, but also we need guarantees about cohesion within the Union," he told reporters.
Austria has been the leader of a small group of countries -- also including Denmark and Cyprus -- pushing for more cautious language in the conclusions of the summit, which concludes Friday.
Some critics of Turkey's EU entry have been pushing for the EU to offer a "privileged partnership" with Ankara short of membership of the bloc itself, but diplomats say this is unlikely to be included in the final summit text.
President Jacques Chirac of France, seeking to assauge a sceptical public, has also promised that the French people will be able to vote in a referendum on the issue.
12/17/2004 17:10 GMT - AFP