EU Foreign Ministers Put Turkey, Iran Atop Agenda

Dow Jones Newswires:

European Union foreign ministers will seek to remove last- minute obstacles on the road to membership talks with Turkey and assess the possibility of drawing Iran back into talks on its nuclear program during a two- day meeting opening Thursday.

European negotiators have been unable to persuade Iran to give up some nuclear activities that can be used to make weapons. Tehran recently rejected economic and other incentives offered by the U.K., France and Germany -negotiating on behalf of the E.U. - and resumed activity related to uranium enrichment.

French President Jacques Chirac called on Iran early this week to cooperate in nuclear talks or risk having the issue sent to the U.N. Security Council, which has the power to impose sanctions.

Thursday's E.U. meeting, hosted by U.K. Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in Newport, Wales, is expected to push Iran to continue the talks if it wants avoid being called before the Security Council.

A U.K. diplomat, whose country holds the rotating E.U. presidency, said the three E.U. countries could take the threat of referral to the Security Council to a Sept. 19 board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, Austria. READ MORE

The E.U. faces pressure from the U.S., which accuses Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to secretly develop nuclear weapons. Iran insists the program is only for generating electricity.

In August, Iran restarted uranium conversion, an early stage on the nuclear fuel cycle that precedes enrichment. Highly enriched uranium can be used to make weapons. At lower levels, it is used on power generation.

Turkey and its refusal to recognize Cyprus - a new E.U. member - will also dominate Thursday's talks. The E.U. is scheduled to open membership talks with TurkeyOct. 3.

As a last requirement, Turkey signed a deal extending its customs union with the E.U. to the 10 countries that joined in 2004, including divided Cyprus, but insisted in a separate declaration that it still didn't recognize the Cypriot government.

Even though the E.U. head office said that Turkey had now met all legal requirements to open talks, legal experts will assess the Turkish declaration of non-recognition and see whether it could still affect the start of negotiations.

Cyprus has warned it will push for a "counter-statement" against Turkey's declaration and Chirac insisted Ankara must explain its position.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Wednesday in a newspaper interview that his country would only establish ties with Cyprus after a comprehensive resolution to the island's division and formation of a new partnership state.

Cyprus has been divided between Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities since Turkey sent troops to the island in 1974, after an abortive coup by supporters of a union with Greece. Turkey still keeps some 35,000 troops on the island.