Brussels strives to keep Turkey membership talks on track as hopes fade for Ankara to meet trade deadline

The European Commission is seeking to keep Turkey's membership talks with the European Union alive, even though it is widely expected that Ankara will fail to meet an EU deadline to open up its trade. In November 2006 the European Commission is set to recommend that the negotiations should be partially suspended if Ankara continues to refuse to open its ports to ships from Cyprus this year, as the EU has demanded.