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Senior officials of the European Union (EU) said on Monday that EU foreign ministers will try to end a major row within the EU member states which has threatened to postpone the start of Turkey's EU membership talks.

"We will work together to find a solution today," Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said before Monday's meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

She was referring to the planned opening of accession talks on Monday between the EU and Turkey on the first and easiest among the 35 policy areas to be negotiated -- science and technology.

Cyprus insists that Turkey end its non-recognition of Cyprus and its blockade of Cypriot shipping and air traffic before the EU starts concrete accession talks with Turkey.

The opening of the talks on the science chapter has to be conducted in the presence of Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. But Gul has made clear he will not attend unless the Cypriots give up their demands.

Plassnik met with Cypriot Foreign Minister George Iacovou on Sunday to explore possible compromises but the meeting failed to produce any results. The two met again early Monday in a last-ditch effort to work out a solution, and diplomats were also working to defuse the row.

"We must and we will take every step in this process together -- unanimously," Plassnik said.

"We always knew the accession process would be a long and difficult road. There are no shortcuts and nothing is automatic," she stressed.

Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said it was still not clear whether the talks on science would start and finish on Monday as scheduled.

"I hope that will be the case," he told reporters.

The EU last year issued a statement which requires Turkey to recognize Cyprus, as well as to open its ports and airports to Cypriot vessels and planes.

But Ankara says it will not make any concessions unless the EU ends the economic isolation of the Turkish-populated north of Cyprus.

Turkey's membership talks with the EU were formally launched last October. A failure to reach a compromise at such an early stage would mean a major setback in Turkey's EU accession process, which is expected to run at least 10 years.

The science chapter is among the easiest of the 35 negotiating chapters that Turkey has to open and close and can in theory be both opened and closed on Monday.

The Austrian EU presidency also proposed a solution that the chapter could be closed "provisionally" which means Nicosia could re-open it at any time later.

The starting and finishing of each of the 35 chapters requires the unanimous consent of EU member states.

Cyprus has been split into the Greek-Cypriot south that receives international recognition and the Turkish-supported north since the Turkish military intervention in 1974.

Turkey, which has 35,000 troops in Cyprus's Turkish-Cypriot north, does not recognize the Nicosia government.

(Xinhua News Agency June 13, 2006)