BRUSSELS, Dec 10 (AFP) - The European Commission voiced support for Turkey's bid to join the EU Friday and expressed hope for a "positive outcome" at a summit next week, but warned that recognition of Cyprus is crucial to Ankara's hopes.
Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso underlined his support in talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is in Brussels a week ahead of the crunch summit set to decide whether to launch membership talks with Ankara.
"He said to Prime Minister Erdogan that he personally supports the accession of Turkey to the union," Barroso's spokeswoman Francoise Le Bail told reporters.
"He thinks it will be a good thing for Turkey and it will be a good thing for the Union as well," she added.
Barroso is "expecting that a positive outcome will be there next week, a positive outcome which will mean being able to start negotiations with Turkey," she added.
But she confirmed the two men had discussed the Cyprus issue, and that Barroso had underlined the link between negotiations and Ankara's recognition of the Greeek Cypriot government of the divided Mediterranean island, which has been an EU member state since May.
"If and when the negotiation with Turkey will be opened it will be a negotation between Turkey and the EU, and it was clear that the EU (is) an entity of 25 member states," she said.
Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974, when Turkish troops occupied the northern third of the island in response to a coup engineered by the then-ruling military junta in Athens to unite the country with Greece.
Only the Greek-Cypriot part of the island joined the EU on May 1, after Greek Cypriots rejected in a referendum a UN blueprint to reunify Cyprus. Turkey only recognises the Turkish Republic of Nothern Cyprus declared in 1983.
The EU is widely expected to give Ankara a green light at next week's summit, but set a series of tough conditions and warn that entry negotiations will take at least a decade, and may in fact not end up in membership.
Barroso's spokeswoman said the new EU commission chief will support the recommendations made by the previous EU executive under Romano Prodi, who left office last month.
The commission position is "balanced," holding out "the prospect of (EU) membershp while at the same time a certain number of conditions that must be fulfilled before membership can occur," she said.
She sidestepped a question about calls by opponents of Turkey's EU bid that Ankara should be offered instead a "privileged partnership" with the bloc, short of actual membership.
"It is (Barroso's) hope ... to be able to start negotiations with in mind a full membership of Turkey," she said. Turkey has strongly rejected the partnership suggestion.
Barroso also warned Erdogan that he must be sensitive to EU concerns in his negotiating stance.
"President Barroso explained to Prime Minister Erdogan the difficulties that were existing with certain member states and certain public opinions. His recommendation was of course to take this into consideration," she said.
12/10/2004 12:45 GMT - AFP