German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder (right) and Jan Peter Balkenende, Dutch prime minister and current president of the European Council, at a press conference in Berlin yesterday.

BRUSSELS/ISTANBUL (AP) - The European Union yesterday edged closer to giving Turkey the green light on membership talks, but jitters over bringing the relatively poor Muslim nation into the fold prevented a decision on a starting date.

The final decision is up to EU leaders meeting in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, after the EU foreign ministers failed yesterday to set a starting date and duration for talks. French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, whose country is skeptical of Turkey joining the bloc, said «negotiations will be long, open-ended and difficult» and stressed that membership was not yet a done deal.

Officials were drafting a summit declaration yesterday to open the doors to Turkey. The draft text, obtained by The Associated Press, hails Turkey for having made «decisive progress» in economic and political reforms. Leaders also express confidence in Turkey's sustained reforms, «and vow to monitor Ankara's commitment to 'fundamental freedoms and to full respect of human rights, (especially) the zero-tolerance policy relating to torture and ill-treatment» of prisoners.

The Turkish Parliament yesterday started debating a law that aims to bring regulations on prisons and other punishment up to EU standards - the final set of reforms that the government has pledged to adopt before the EU decides whether to start talks with Turkey. Both government and opposition lawmakers support the law on execution of punishments, which was expected to be passed before a summit of EU leaders in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. The law is part of an overhaul of Turkey's penal system and aims to improve prison conditions and the execution of sentences to meet EU standards.

EU foreign ministers yesterday debated possible dates for talks to start and conditions to attach to them to assuage fears in Western Europe of bringing Turkey into the bloc.

In Berlin, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder kept up his support of Turkey's entry into the European Union despite a barrage of criticism by Germany's conservative opposition.

«The goal of the negotiation is entry and the goal will not be qualified,» Schroeder said after talks with Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, whose country currently holds the EU presidency.

Balkenende said the EU's decision would be a «lasting decision,» adding that he expects negotiations to begin in the first half of 2005.

Edmund Stoiber, a German conservative leader who narrowly lost 2002 elections to Schroeder, has warned that the opposition would seek to prevent full membership for Turkey if it wins the next election in 2006.