LUXEMBOURG: A day after they launched landmark negotiations on Turkey’s membership of the European Union, key policymakers in Ankara and Europe voiced hopes the talks would bridge divisions between Western countries and the Islamic world.

“This is a win-win situation and the world will also win,” said a beaming Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul after the talks were opened.

By starting discussions which could make secular but predominantly Muslim Turkey a member of the wealthy 25-nation EU within 10 to 15 years, both sides had ‘made history’, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said.

“This is a great day,” Mr Straw told reporters after a warm handshake with his Turkish counterpart.

Turkey’s first steps on the road to joining the EU meant that Europe had firmly established its credentials as a ‘union of values’, said Mr Straw, speaking for the current British EU presidency. “Europe is not about religious differences,” he insisted.

Mr Gul, beaming at reporters and calling his British colleague ‘my dear friend Jack’, said that the start of membership talks meant that “We have entered a new era...become part of each other.”

Turkey’s ‘different’ Muslim characteristics would add to the diversity of the EU, said Mr Gul, adding: “The EU has adopted a very strategic approach.”

However, both men rapidly focused on Turkish reform efforts which the EU insists must continue apace if Ankara is to fulfil its 40-year-old dream of joining the Union.

The Turkish foreign minister insisted that Ankara would keep pressing ahead with political reforms, adding that this was a domestic imperative, not just a response to EU demands.

“Turkey in 10 years will be very different,” Mr Gul vowed, saying the country was headed for faster economic growth and that its young population would be an asset in a rapidly ageing Europe. But the EU must also keep its promise of fully embracing Turkey, Mr Gul insisted.

Mr Straw said Ankara must strengthen the independence of its judiciary, raise standards for cultural and human rights, continue efforts to curb the military’s political clout and improve conditions for the country’s Kurdish minority.

Negotiations, expected to last up to 15 years, will be ‘rigorous and challenging’, Mr Straw cautioned. He added that the final decision on whether the EU eventually opens its doors to Turkey will require unanimous agreement by all 25 EU states.

The exchanges followed two days of intense and tension-filled EU discussions on entry terms for Turkey, with Austria making a last-minute demand that Ankara should be offered a privileged partnership instead of full membership.

Internal EU agreement was reached after Austria softened its stance but ministers in Luxembourg were then kept waiting while the Turkish cabinet considered the EU offer.

Foreign Minister Gul finally arrived in Luxembourg only minutes after the midnight Monday deadline for the formal launch of the long-awaited entry talks.

Despite the start of negotiations, European public opinion remains hostile to Turkish accession. Surveys suggest less than 40 per cent of EU citizens want Turkey to join, with the figure falling to around 20 per cent and 10 per cent in France and Austria respectively. Both countries have said they intend to hold referendums on whether Turkey should be allowed to join the EU.

French president Jacques Chirac said Turkey would need to undergo a ‘major cultural revolution’ to fulfil EU membership conditions. “Will it succeed? I cannot say,” he said. “I hope so. But I am not at all sure.”

However, the former French president, Valery Giscard d’Estaing, who led the project to draw up the EU constitution, said he felt ‘sadness and astonishment’ about the 25-member body’s decision to begin entry talks with Turkey.

Ankara has sought to join the EU since being made an associate member in 1963. For years, its aspirations were frustrated by Greece, but Athens withdrew its objections in 1999 in the hope that eventual Turkish membership would help end long-standing disputes with its traditional rival

Turkey’s entry talks will be broken into 35 separate ‘chapters’, covering areas such as political reform, customs union, agriculture and competition policies, where Ankara will have to bring its domestic legislation in line with EU standards.

In addition, complicated relations between Turkey and Cyprus will also continue to cast a shadow over the talks.