Don't make Turkey EU bid a 'domestic issue': FM

(STOCKHOLM) - Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called on all European Union member states Thursday not to make Ankara's application to join the 27-member bloc a "domestic issue".

"Please do not make the Turkish EU integration process a domestic issue of discussion," Davutoglu told a press conference in Stockholm.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have both voiced their opposition to Turkey joining the EU in the run-up to the European elections on June 7.

Davutoglu said joining the European Union was "a strategic priority" for Turkey and that the only objective of its negotiations was nothing less than "full membership".

He was in Stockholm for talks with Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt and EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, ahead of the July 1 start of the Swedish EU presidency.

Bildt has previously said Germany and France's position on Turkish EU membership differs from "the vast majority of countries" who support Ankara joining.

When Turkey began EU membership talks in October 2005, it opened discussions on 10 of the 35 policy areas that candidates must successfully negotiate.

Talks on eight of those areas have been frozen since December 2006 over a trade row with Cyprus, while five others directly linked to membership have been blocked by France.

Rehn said negotiations were "steadily moving forward", and that he had encouraged Davutoglu to pursue reforms "with concrete results in order to advance fundamental freedoms" in Turkey..

Rehn told reporters he had also discussed Cyprus with Davutoglu.

"We have a serious process of negotiations going on," he said. "It is still very challenging but we have now a real chance of achieving a comprehensive settlement."