Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Namik Tan said in Ankara on Wednesday that Turkey believes that entry talks with EU will begin on October 3 as scheduled.

Commenting on statements of French President Jacques Chirac who called for Turkey's recognition of Greek Cypriot government of Cyprus, Tan said, "what is important is a sentence in which he stressed that 'EU would stick to its commitments.' In this context, we hope that France will back start of entry talks with Turkey."

Tan told the weekly press briefing that "Cyprus problem is not a precondition, and this has been stated by EU executives for many times. Nobody is in an effort to make Cyprus problem a precondition."

Earlier, Chirac twice urged Turkey to clarify its stance on Cyprus prior to its start of accession talks and asked Turkey to offer assurances and to carry out all its commitments to EU.

Foreign ministers from 25 EU member states will meet in Newport, Britain, between September 1 and 2 to discuss Turkey's EU entry negotiations.

Turkey signed the additional protocol last month with EU extending its customs unions to ten new EU member countries including Cyprus.

However, Ankara said that the signing did not constitute formal recognition of Cyprus, noting its position towards the south Cyprus will remain unchanged until the conflict is resolved and the Turkish, Greek communities of the island are reunified.

Cyprus has been divided into Greek Cypriot south and Turkish Cypriot north since 1974 when Turkish troops captured the northern third of the island in the wake of an abortive coup seeking union with Greece.

Turkey is the only country to recognize the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, where it maintains some 35,000 troops.

Efforts to reunite Cyprus failed when Greek Cypriots rejected a UN peace plan in a referendum and then joined the EU as representative of the whole island in May last year, leaving northern Cyprus out. 

(Xinhua News Agency September 1, 2005)