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Greece renews support for Turkey's EU candidacy

BUCHAREST: Greece and Turkey vowed on Saturday to continue improving their "very positive" ties and the Greek prime minister reiterated his support for Turkey's bid to enter the European Union.

"We had a look at our relations up to the last meetings of foreign ministers. We found the evolution very positive," Prime Minister Costas Simitis told Reuters after talks with Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit in Bucharest.

The 20-minute meeting, on the fringes of a Balkans summit in Bucharest, was another sign of the new diplomatic warmth between the traditional rivals.

The two premiers, looking relaxed, shook hands before the talks started behind close doors in the sprawling marble lined parliament building where the one-day conference is being held.

The private meeting had been requested by Simitis, Ecevit told reporters before boarding a plane for Bucharest on Friday.

"We are happy with the results that thus far have been obtained (in Greek-Turkish relations)," Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said. "And we discussed common problems regarding the European Union."

EU leaders agreed at a summit in Helsinki in December that Turkey should be made a formal candidate for EU membership. But they said it should not be allowed to join 12 other countries in actual membership talks until it had made democratic reforms.

Turkey had previously been kept at arm's length due to sour relations with EU members and NATO ally Greece over territorial issues in the Aegean, human rights, and Cyprus.

But relations warmed after Greece and Turkey were both hit by devastating earthquakes last year. In December, Athens dropped its objections to the EU classing Turkey as a membership candidate.

Simitis reiterated Greece's support for Turkey's plans to join the EU.

"Greece has declared long ago that we agree with the European perspective of the EU and we want to help in this direction so we have to discuss all these matters concerning (Turkey's) membership of the European Union and the evolution of relations of the region with the EU," Simitis said.

Simitis has accepted an invitation to visit the Turkish capital Ankara. But on Saturday neither he nor Ecevit would give a date for the visit.

A Greek official accompanying Simitis at the summit told Reuters: "The date of the visit will be decided after the elections (in Greece in April). There is no problem."

The Balkans summit brings together the premiers of Albania, Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania, Greece and Turkey.

Yugoslavia, an official member of the so-called Southeast Europe Cooperation Project, has not been invited. Ex-Yugoslav republics Bosnia and Croatia were attending as observers.

The highlight of the Bucharest summit is to be the signing of a document to boost stability, security and democracy in the often volatile Balkans.-Reuters