BRUSSELS-ANKARA: Turkey could start long-coveted negotiations in 2005 about joining the EU, under a plan likely to be approved at this week’s Copenhagen summit, it emerged on Tuesday night.

Turkey had demanded that talks begin as soon as next year. But as EU governments squabbled over the final deal with the 10 candidates who are to join in 2004, and new problems arose over Cyprus, Turkey seemed likely to face disappointment.

Joschka Fischer, the German foreign minister, said the EU was “overwhelmingly positive” about the 2005 date suggested by Berlin and Paris, as long as a 2004 review of human rights proved satisfactory.

“I hope that the Turkish side can also see how wide this opens the door in favour of Turkish interests,” he said.

It was unclear whether the offer was conditional on Cyprus, on which Turkish cooperation is deemed vital. But prospects for progress there receded on Tuesday when the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, criticised a revised UN plan for the reunification of the divided island.

“The document is the same old document,” he said. “Our worries and doubts about our status, our sovereignty, our equality, continue.”

Mr Denktash, who had been invited to Copenhagen by the UN’s Cyprus envoy, said he was going to Turkey for medical treatment — weakening hopes of an agreement by the time EU leaders meet tomorrow night. Glafcos Clerides, the Cypriot president, will be there.

Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of Turkey’s newly elected AKP party, was in Washington on Tuesday lobbying President Bush to pressure the EU into giving him the date he wants.

Jean-Pierre Raffarin, the French prime minister, said Turkey should be aware that the EU’s attitude towards it was one of both “openness and vigilance”.

Jack Straw, the foreign secretary, said Turkey had come a long way in a short time, but its entry date depended both on Cyprus and a long-blocked deal allowing the EU’s fledgling rapid reaction force to use Nato assets.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.