(ANKARA) - The Turkish government said Monday it would not seek to block France's return to NATO command despite French objections to Ankara's European Union integration, the Anatolia news agency reported.

"We do not find it ethical or suitable to link the EU process with any other issue," Justice Minister Mehmet Ali Sahin was quoted as saying after a cabinet meeting here.

He was responding to a question about whether Turkey, a NATO member since 1952, would use its power of veto in the alliance to persuade France to drop its opposition to Ankara becoming an EU member.

However, a senior official at the alliance's Brussels headquarters said that Turkey had no power to stop France, already a NATO member, from reclaiming a place in the organisation's military command structure.

"There is no question of veto. It is one hundred percent France's decision," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

France was a founding member of NATO but left the integrated command in 1966 when Charles de Gaulle rejected US dominance of the military alliance.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced France's reintegration during a major speech on defence on June 17.

Sarkozy is a vocal opponent of Turkey's membership bid, saying it "does not belong in Europe" because most of its land mass is in Asia.

French objections have previously contributed to slowing down Turkey's membership talks with the bloc which began in October 2005.

Sahin said Ankara expected Paris to work towards pushing the accession process forward when it takes over the bloc's rotating presidency for six months on Tuesday.

"Our expectation from the French presidency is to continue our membership negotiations in transparency and in line with the principle that agreements must be kept," Sahin added.

"We expect France to open talks on more policy chapters during its six-month tenure," he said.

Turkey has begun talks in only eight of the 35 policy chapters that candidate countries are required to complete.

A total of 18 chapters are on hold and few remain that can be opened.

Eight chapters were officially frozen in December 2006 due to Turkey's refusal to open its ports and airports to Cypriot ships and planes, while five are directly linked to accession and blocked by France.

EU member Cyprus is holding out on some, as is the European Commission, which supervises the accession process.

EU officials say three more chapters could be opened during the French presidency if all goes well.

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