Istanbul, 2006/12/05, IRIB

Turkey on Tuesday urged EU leaders to avoid a historic mistake when they discuss the country's membership bid next week and warned that a German proposal to set a deadline for Ankara to grant trade priviliges to Cyprus would have a very negative impact.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he telephoned German Chancellor Angela Merkel hours before she was to meet French President Jacques Chirac in Mettlach, Germany, to seek backing for Berlin's proposal.

"I reminded her what the costs of a wrong step could be," Erdogan told the parliamentary group of his justice and development party.

"I told her that we hope such a historic mistake will not occur at the summit of EU leaders on December 14-15," he said.

EU Foreign Ministers meet in Brussels on December 11 to discuss a European commission recommendation to partially freeze membership talks with turkey because of its refusal to open its sea and air ports to Cypriot vessels under a customs union pact with the bloc.
 
Turkey-EU-Germany