British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Ankara on Friday hours after a European Union (EU) summit decided to partially freeze Turkey's EU membership talks, the semi- official Anatolia news agency reported.

Blair will hold talks with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday evening and is expected to renew Britain's pledge of support for Turkey's EU membership, the report said.

According to Turkish prime minister's office, the two prime ministers will also discuss regional and international issues.

Blair said earlier in the day in Brussels that it was important that Turkey's entry talks will go on, noting that the 25-nation bloc has "not closed the doors to Turkey", Anatolia said,

EU leaders endorsed a decision of freezing accession talks on eight of Turkey's 35 policy chapters, mainly because of the row over Cyprus.

Source: Xinhua