PARIS, Aug. 2 (Xinhuanet) -- French Prime Minister Dominique De Villepin asked Turkey on Tuesday to recognize Cyprus before it starts talks on joining the European Union (EU).

    "It doesn't seem to me that a process of negotiations can start with a country that doesn't recognize each one of the members of the EU," Villepin told Europe 1 radio.

    He said that in case of refusal, the scheduled date on Oct. 3 would be postponed before Turkey shows a real willingness to enter the negotiation process.

    "Entering a negotiation process, whatever it is, first assumes recognition of each of the members."

    Greece rapidly hailed Villepin's declaration, while Ankara strongly reacted in saying it would never accept such a precondition.

    His comments were qualified as "especially positive" by Cyprus's government spokesman Kypros Chrysostomides, according to Cyprus News Agency. "We have always said that non-recognition of a full member of the EU by a country that wishes to enter the EU was inconceivable," he said.

    The European Commission and EU president Britain said the 25 EUleaders had never recognized a prerequisite for beginning negotiations, and the Cyprus question should be dealt with separately in a UN framework.

    Ankara signed the EU protocol on Friday while issuing a declaration saying that the act did not mean recognition of the Cypriot Republic.

    A spokesman for the executive European Commission said the EU should stick to the commitments it had made last December, when the 25 EU leaders agreed to open talks with Turkey once it had brought key reforms into force and signed the protocol.

    "We must now move forward and open negotiations on October 3," the spokesman said. "The conditions set by the 25 member states, in our preliminary assessment, are fulfilled."

    French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Cecile Pozzo di Borgo refused to make any comment over the issue. She only said that there would be a certain number of meetings in EU in the following weeks.

    Villepin's declaration is a little surprising for he had always been in the camp of French major backers for Turkey's EU bid, following the example of French President Jacques Chirac.

    His major political rival, number two of the government and French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, is strongly opposed to the Turkish entry to EU, like public opinion in France, as showed in the opinion polls.

    Sarkozy, leader of Chirac's ruling UMP party, who has said Turkey should not be offered full membership, is considered with Villepin as two probable candidates at the 2007 presidential elections. Enditem