ANKARA - Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul insisted Monday that Turkey's planned signing of a key EU document covering Cyprus would not amount to recognition of the Greek Cypriot government of the divided island.
"Recognition of the Greek Cypriot sector is out of the question. This can happen only after a lasting settlement is found" to the three-decade Cyprus conflict, Gul said at a joint news conference with visiting Argentine Foreign Minister Rafael Bielsa.
The European Commission and Turkey have agreed on the text of an accord concerning Cyprus, the signing of which is a condition for opening accession talks with Ankara on October 3.
The protocol would extend an already-existing Turkey-EU customs union to 10 new members who joined the bloc last May, including Cyprus whose internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot government Ankara refuses to endorse.
Gul said Turkish officials were studying the draft of the document, which Brussels sent to Ankara at the weekend for a final approval.
The procedures that should be completed may push back the ultimate signing of the protocol to the period of the EU's British presidency, which will begin in July, he said.
Ankara is the only country to recognize the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), where it maintains some 30,000 troops.
"Turkey recognizes the TRNC. This will continue and our ambassador there will stay. There will be no change," Gul said.
He renewed a call on the United Nations to expend efforts for the resumption of peace talks between Cyprus' Greek and Turkish sides aimed at reunifying the island.
Ankara hopes that a speedy settlement to the conflict will rid it of what it considers Greek Cypriot efforts to use Turkey's EU bid to extract concessions from Ankara.
The most recent UN bid failed last April when the Greek Cypriots rejected an EU-backed reunification plan, even though the Turkish Cypriots gave it overwhelming support.
The outcome ensured that the Greek Cypriots alone joined the EU on May 1.
Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkey seized the north in response to an Athens-engineered coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.

03/28/2005 12:21 GMT