EUobserver.com

The United States has reiterated its support for full Turkish membership of the European Union, with President George W. Bush saying the move would be "in the interest of peace".

"I strongly believe that Europe will benefit when Turkey is a member of the European Union", Mr Bush said on Tuesday (8 January), underlining "it's in the interests of peace that Turkey be admitted into the EU".

The White House chief described Turkey - a mainly Muslim country of over 70 million people - as "a constructive bridge between Europe and the Muslim world".

"Turkey sets a fantastic example for nations around the world to see where it's possible to have a democracy that co-exists with a great religion like Islam", he said.

The road to EU membership for Ankara has been long and bumpy. It became an EU candidate country in 1999 and began accession talks with the 27-member bloc in October 2005.

Since then, only six out of 35 policy chapters have been opened, while eight chapters are provisionally frozen over Turkey's refusal to open its ports and airports to Cyprus.

Negotiations, often described as a open-ended process, are expected to take at least a decade, with no guarantee of full EU membership at the end.

But Washington would like to see this moderate Muslim country locked into both NATO and the EU for geopolitical reasons.

During Tuesday's meeting at the White House with Mr Gul, the US president described Turkey as "a strategic partner of the United States" and said that both countries face "common problems".

He was referring to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the paramilitary group, which campaigns for an ethnic homeland in the predominantly Kurdish southeast of Turkey.

"One such problem is our continuing fight against a common enemy, and that's terrorists, and such a common enemy as the PKK. It's an enemy to Turkey, it's an enemy to Iraq, and it's an enemy to people who want to live in peace", Mr Bush said.

The EU put the PKK on its list of terrorist organisations in 2002.

US president reiterates support for Turkey's EU bid