ANKARA - The prime ministers of Turkey and Greece, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Costas Karamanlis, will meet Monday in Brussels to discuss the Cyprus conflict, a major stumbling block in Turkey's EU membership bid, and bilateral ties, a Turkish diplomat said.
The meeting will take place on the eve of a European Union summit on Tuesday and Wednesday, for which both leaders will travel to Brussels.
The talks will focus on chances of reviving peace talks between the long-divided Turkish and Greek communities of Cyprus and outstanding problems in bilateral relations between Ankara and Athens, the diplomat said.
Turkey is under EU pressure to normalize ties with the internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot government of Cyprus, which it refuses to endorse.
Ankara sees a speedy settlement to Cyprus' three-decade division as a way of getting rid of what it considers Greek Cypriot efforts to use Turkey's EU bid to extract concessions from Ankara.
The Greek Cypriot side of the island joined the EU last May.
Turkey is set to start accession negotiations on October 3, but Brussels has conditioned the talks on the signing of a protocol by Ankara that would extend an already-existing Turkey-EU association agreement to cover 10 new members, including Cyprus.
Ankara says it will sign the accord, but maintains that such a move will not signify recognition of the Greek Cypriots.
On the bilateral front, Turkey and Greece enjoy an unusual period of warmth in their ties, but the two neighbors remain at loggerheads over territorial rights in the Aegean and regularly trade accusations of violations and harassment.
03/21/2005 10:44 GMT