The European Commission is set to recommend a partial suspension of Turkey's EU membership talks, analysts said Thursday, given slim chances of Ankara acting swiftly on demands to open its ports to Cypriot ships.

In a highly critical annual report on Turkey issued Wednesday, the Commission highlighted human rights and corruption problems as well as the influence of the army in politics.

However it is the key issue of the divided island of Cyprus which looks set to upset Turkey's EU adhesion talks, which began a year ago and are due to take at least a decade to complete -- with no guarantee of membership.

A lack of agreement among EU countries could yet come to Turkey's aid as, regardless of any Commission proposal, stopping the accession process could require unanimity.

Ankara has rejected any link between the Cyprus problem and its membership talks, saying that the responsibility of keeping Turkey's bid on track "falls more on the EU".

Turkey refuses to open its air and sea ports to craft flying the flag of the internationally-recognized Cyprus Republic, whose Greek Cypriot government controls the south of the divided island.

This is despite a customs deal with all members of the 25-nation bloc it is seeking to join.

While stopping short of suspending membership talks immediately, the EU's executive arm told Ankara to make progress on the Cyprus problem before an EU summit in mid-December or face unspecified consequences.

Analyst Amanda Akcakoca at the Brussels-based European Policy Centre said: "Turkey's relations with the EU seems to be doomed to a negative spiral."

"The pace of reform in Turkey has slowed down. Everything now depends on what the Commission recommends, but I expect they will recommend a partial suspension of talks."

Katinka Barysch, from the London-based Centre for European Reform warned of the consequences if there is not some movement by the main protagonists.

"It has become abundantly clear that if this is not turned round it could turn into a train crash," she warned.

The suggestion on the table at the moment, according to analysts, is that the EU suspends a certain number of the 35 accession chapters which all candidate nations must satisfactorily complete before membership is considered.

"The number of chapters that could be suspended because of the port opening issue is not set in stone," Barysch said.

For Camiel Eurlings, rapporteur on Turkey for the European People's Party, there is unlikely to be a decision to suspend negotiations because of the widely divergent stances of some member states like Britain and Cyprus on the issue.

"I personally doubt there will be an official decision to suspend negotiations because of (the lack of) unanimity," Eurlings said.

Britain's Europe Minister Geoff Hoon on Wednesday reiterated London's backing for Turkey's EU ambitions, as well as those of Balkan countries queuing up at the bloc's southeastern door.

"The British government has long championed enlargement, which has brought stability and prosperity not only to new member states but has been hugely beneficial to existing ones," he said in a statement.

Cypriot Foreign Minister George Lillikas was not optimistic that a deal could be reached by next month.

"There is nothing significant that could arise between now and December that would lead to a change in Turkey's stance," Lillikas told reporters in Nicosia Thursday.

Professor Richard Whitman, a senior fellow at the Chatham House research institute in London said the Comission's report on Turkey was unusually hard-hitting.

While freezing some of the accession chapters would not mean much to most people, it would be a strong signal indicating a lengthening of the whole process, he said.

"It puts an anchor on the Turkish accesion process because it is really reducing to a crawl the enlargement process moving forward".