The European Union (EU) foreign ministers struggled on Monday to break the deadlock over accession talks with Turkey amid a deepening crisis as Austria refused to drop its demand for granting Turkey an alternative to full membership.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, admitted that the foreign ministers' meeting on Monday was "at a difficult stage" and that a positive outcome was not guaranteed.

"We are at a difficult stage in these negotiations and I cannot say what the outcome will be," Straw told reporters.

Straw held bilateral talks with his Austrian counterpart, Ursula Plassnik, after an emergency meeting of the EU foreign ministers failed to reach agreement after midnight Sunday. Straw also talked with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul on the phone.

EU is scheduled to kick-start entry talks with Turkey on 5:00 p.m. (1500 GMT), 42 years after Turkey's application. But signs are not encouraging at all.

"That is by no means certain," Straw said.

He obviously backed off from his comment right after the end of Sunday night's session that there might be hope for success.

Turkey has made clear that it would not accept anything but full membership. Turkey has threatened to boycott Monday's opening ceremony, if there is such a ceremony at all.

Ankara asked to join the EU in 1963. The EU nodded in 1999, and at a summit in December 2004, EU leaders decided to launch membership negotiations with Turkey this Monday.

Under EU's rules, Turkey's entry needs the "nod" from all 25 EU member states. Austria's insistence on a "privileged partnership" therefore becomes a major hurdle.

The foreign ministers were trying to work out a negotiating framework that will set the basic rules and procedures for the negotiations, which are expected to last at least 10 years.

Besides the focal issue of Austria's insistence, there are also problems with the draft framework between Turkey and EU members.

Turkey is reportedly opposed to a clause in the draft framework demanding that Ankara not block the accession of EU states to international organizations and treaties. Turkey was concerned the clause could lead to Cyprus' entry into the NATO.

Ankara refuses to recognize the Greek-Cypriot government in the south, which represents the whole Republic of Cyprus in the EU, and wants independence of the Turkish-Cypriot north.

The Turkey talks appear to be ill-timed as the EU itself has to put its house in order after its constitution was vetoed in France and the Netherlands, and the 25-nation bloc has to sort out a budget for 2007-13.

Turkey signed a protocol in July to extend its customs union agreement to the 10 new EU member states, including Cyprus, satisfying the conditions for the start of membership talks.

However, Ankara said at the same time that the signing of the protocol did not mean any form of political recognition of Cyprus. The statement runs against EU rules that a new member state must recognize all its existing members.

The EU governments issued a compromise counterstatement last month, allowing Turkey to recognize Cyprus before it formally joins the EU, thus making the start of talks on Monday possible.

Source: Xinhua