PARIS, Nov 30: To plead with French authorities that Turkey is very much a European country and should be allowed to join the European Union in 2004, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of Turkey’s ruling political party, has told President Jacques Chirac that “it is wrong to consider us an Islamic political party.”

“True, we are conservatives, but above all we are democrats,” he added.

Erdogan had insisted on meeting with President Chirac at the tail end of a whirlwind tour of the principal European capitals, in an effort to persuade the French head of state and other political leaders that Turkey has its role to play in Europe, even if this means transforming somewhat its constitution.

The Turkish leader promised Chirac that his first order of business upon returning to Ankara would be to revise the Turkish constitution notably with regard to the observance of human rights, a subject that had been at the centre of reservations expressed by many French and European leaders.