Finns Arrange Urgent Meeting to Try to Bridge Cyprus Divide

An emergency summit involving foreign ministers from both sides of Cyprus and from Turkey is expected to be held this weekend in the hope of avoiding a breakdown in Ankara's EU membership talks.

Finland, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, will host the meeting near Helsinki days before a critical European Commission report on Turkey's conduct in its EU talks. A draft copy, leaked to the FT Deutschland, confirmed the feeling in Brussels that the commission will rebuke Turkey in two areas.

Olli Rehn, the European enlargement commissioner, will accuse Turkey of slowing the pace of reform of human rights and free speech.

Mr Rehn is also planning to criticise Turkey for failing to extend its custom union to all 25 members of the union by opening its ports and airports to Greek Cyprus, whose government is recognised internationally (but not by Turkey) as the government of the whole island.

Turkey, which signed the "Ankara Protocol" in December 2004 as the price for being given a beginning date for EU membership talks 10 months later, is refusing to move until the union ends its trade embargo of northern Cyprus.

Erkki Tuomioja, the Finnish foreign minister, has been trying to broker a compromise between Turkey and Cyprus to avoid what the commission is describing as a "train crash" when its report is published next Wednesday.

The proposed deal has three elements. Firstly, Turkey would open up a few of its ports to Greek Cypriot shipping.

Secondly, the port of Famagusta, which lies just inside the northern part of the "buffer zone" in Cyprus and is controlled by Turkish forces, would be handed over to the EU. This would allow shipping to move freely in and out of the port.

Lastly, Varosha, the resort area of Famagusta, would be handed over to the UN. This would allow the resort, which has been a ghost town since Turkish troops invaded Cyprus in 1974, to be returned to Greek Cypriots who lay claim to virtually all its property.

The Finnish government believes an agreement on Cyprus would only be temporary but would avoid a breakdown next week when the commission publishes its annual "monitoring report" on Turkey's membership talks.

The Cypriot government, which has a veto on every element of Turkey's EU membership talks, is making clear that it will call for tough measures if the Ankara protocol is not implemented by the end of this year.

Diplomats in Brussels are not hopeful of a deal this weekend. A failure to reach agreement on Cyprus would lead to a gloomy commission report next Wednesday, guaranteeing that December's summit of EU leaders would turn into a crisis on Turkey. The draft of the commission's report warns that "cases of torture and ill-treatment are still being reported," although it does add that the incidence of torture has been reduced.