Enlargement Commissioner of the European Union (EU) Olli Rehn has said the bloc would continue expansion, but in a "gradual and carefully managed" manner.

In an interview with Xinhua prior to the first anniversary of the EU's biggest enlargement last May, Rehn said the EU would "pace itself" in further enlargement.

"After this 'big bang,' the EU needs to pace itself," Rehn told Xinhua in a written interview.

"Further enlargements must be gradual and carefully managed to ensure that European citizens support them and that the Union maintains its capacity to act," he said.

"But the EU cannot close its doors," Rehn stressed.

Looking back, Rehn hailed the entry of 10 new members on May 1 last year that resulted in an EU that "stretches from the Atlantic to the Carpathian mountains, and from northern Lapland down to the coast of the Levant in the eastern Mediterranean."

The enlargement brought the number of EU's member states from 15 to 25 and its total population to more than 450 million.

Despite substantial economic and political challenges ahead, the enlargement has already yielded some marked results.

Statistics issued by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, show that growth of gross domestic product in the 10 new members picked up last year to 5 percent from 3.7 percent ayear earlier.

Economists forecast a further jump of more than 4 percent in 2005 - more than twice the rate of the 15 old members.

In addition, the fears that the freedom granted to the citizens of new member states to travel to and work in the old member countries would lead to a "great exodus" did not materialize.

Since assuming his post last November, the 43-year-old Rehn has focused his attention on the EU's future enlargement.

"Enlargement is one of the EU's most successful policies and a powerful foreign policy tool," he said.

On the controversial issue of Turkey's membership, Rehn said the accession of candidate countries to the EU is based on the political, economical and legal criteria that have been defined in Copenhagen in 1993.

"This is the criteria that have to be fulfilled by countries that are wishing to join the Union," he said, adding that the EC is evaluating the progress made by the candidate countries on a yearly basis.

"The (European) Commission takes the concerns of the citizens seriously and takes note of the debate on the accession of Turkey," he said.

"It is going to elaborate a strategy for an enhanced political and cultural dialogue between Turkey and the European Union. Its aim is to make citizens in the EU understand what is modern Turkey all about and to make people in Turkey understand what is the European Union all about," he stressed.

On the integration of the Balkan region into the EU, Rehn said the EU has designed a specific policy for the countries of the Western Balkans which is called the "Stabilization and Association Process."

"This policy helps to bring them closer to the EU by boosting political and economic reform in the countries," he said.