Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Brussels on Thursday for a final round of talks ahead of a key EU decision on Ankara's bid for membership in the bloc with a reminder of what he termed Turkey's three non-negotiable demands.

"The first is our definite demand for membership because nothing is left to be done" regarding the political standards -- the so-called Copenhagen criteria -- Turkey must abide by to begin accession talks, Erdogan said.

Erdogan told reporters at the airport in Ankara before leaving that the second item on the list is that Ankara expects EU leaders to set a firm date for starting the negotiations when they meet at a summit in Brussels on December 16 and 17.

Thirdly, he said, Turkey would not bow to any additional political conditions imposed by the bloc before the start of the accession talks.

"We have said and continue to say these (three demands) very clearly and openly," Erdogan said.

Before Erdogan had left Ankara Turkish correspondents in Brussels and specialist websites reported that the EU's rotating Dutch presidency had drawn up a third draft of the conclusions to be reached at next week's summit, which contained at least one amendment in line with earlier demands by Turkey.

Turkey was unhappy with the second draft that was leaked to the media on Tuesday and which, unlike the earlier text, said the European Union must be sure it has the "capacity to absorb" Turkey before it can decide on whether to admit it.

According to copies of the draft seen on the web, the phrase no longer figures among the conclusions, which maintain a clause singling out torture as being among key points of concern to be closely monitored.

It also maintains the reference to an "open-ended" process Turkey has been unhappy with and still leaves the date for the start of negotiations blank, presumably to be filled in by the EU leaders at the conclusion of their summit.

Another clause that remained unchanged was a discreet call for Ankara to recognise EU-member Cyprus -- but without mentioning the ethnically divided island republic by name.

Ankara only recognises the breakaway Turkish Republic in the north of Cyprus and not the internationally-acknowledged Greek Cypriot government in the south.

Erdogan is scheduled to meet his Dutch counterpart Jan Peter Balkenende later Thursday and will hold talks Friday with European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso and enlargement commissioner Oli Rehn before returning home to wait out the December 17 verdict.

He is also due to meet Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt.