(ANKARA) - A possible ban on Turkey's ruling party could result in the suspension of membership talks with the European Union, Foreign Minister Ali Babacan warned in comments published Thursday.

A legal onslaught to outlaw the Justice and Development Party (AKP) for undermining Turkey's secular system and ensuing political tensions in Ankara "are extremely negative developments for the EU accession process," the mass-selling Sabah daily quoted Babacan as saying.

"If things go farther, relations with the EU will deteriorate badly and even the suspension of the negotiation process will come to the agenda," he said.

Turkey's chief prosecutor earlier this month asked the Constitutional Court to close down the AKP, to which Babacan also belongs, on accusations of pursuing religiously motivated policies that threaten the country's fiercely guarded secular order.

The court will decide within several days whether the indictment is admissible. A final verdict in the case is expected to take up to six months.

The prosecutor's move has raised fears that political tensions will stall reforms required for Turkey to join the EU at a time when the government is already under fire for having slackened its reform drive.

The EU has already frozen talks with Turkey in eight of the 35 policy areas that candidates are required to complete in response to Ankara's refusal to grant trade privileges to Cyprus under a customs union agreement with the bloc.

The AKP, the offshoot of a now-banned Islamist movement, has disowned its roots, pledged commitment to secularism and embraced Turkey's EU bid.

The prosecutor, however, charges that moves such as the abolition of a ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities last month and a ban on alcohol in restaurants run by AKP municipalities indicate the party's intentions to establish an "Islamist-inspired" system.

Critics have decried the prosecutor's move as a blow to democracy and a fresh attempt by hardline secularists to stop the AKP following its re-election for a second five-year term with almost 47 percent of the vote in July.

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