Turkey and EU agree terms of membership talks

Following the discussion, Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan committed his country to extending a 1963 customs agreement to cover the ten new member states - including Cyprus. Signature of the agreement would mean acknowledging Cyprus as an EU member - something which to date has not been the case. Ankara has said it will do this before EU talks begin - 3 October - but only if the agreement is adapted first. In a statement leaders said they welcomed the declaration of Turkey that "the Turkish government confirms that it is ready to sign the Protocol on the adaption of the Ankara agreement prior to the actual start of negotations". Dutch prime minister and current head of the EU, Jan-Peter Balkenende was careful to stress that this does not yet mean an official recognition of Cyprus by Turkey. The exact terms of the concession, which is extremely sensitive for Turkey, were intensely debated on Friday causing the meeting to break up into clusters of member states. The final agreement was eventually penned by the Dutch EU Presidency, Germany, the UK, Turkey and the Commission. It is sigifiantly less strong than a draft circulated earlier on Friday calling on Turkey to initial the 1963 agreement during the summit. This was rejected by Mr Erdogan, who argued that he could not sell such a definite concession at home.