1 Greece on Thursday said it won't allow the European Union to speed up a customs union with Turkey unless it receives further assurances regarding membership talks with Cyprus.
2 'The position of the Greek government is negative. At the same time the government detects the possibility to continue talks because we think there is room for clearing up and improving the (EU) positions,' government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said after a cabinet meeting.
3 Foreign ministers from the 15 EU nations on Monday had promised to open membership talks with Cyprus six months after an institutional overhaul of the EU is approved sometime in 1997.
4 In return Greece would lift its veto on the trade accord with Turkey. The EU ministers had hoped to clear up remaining technical problems in negotiations with Turkey so that talks would end by March 7, when the EU foreign ministers meet again.
5 Some of those problems are Turkey's human rights record and limits on the free movement of Turkish citizens in the EU once the customs union becomes operational.
6 In Ankara, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Murat Karayalcin said he did not want the EU to connect the customs union accord with Greece or other issues. He added that Turkey was negotiating with the EU and not Greece.
7 Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ferhat Ataman also said Turkey had fulfilled its obligations for the accord and expected the EU to do likewise.
8 Venizelos said Premier Andreas Papandreou would send letters to his EU counterparts outlining his government's objections to Monday's agreement. If the objections are not addressed, Greece will not lift its veto.
9 Sources close to the meeting said Greece wants the EU to set a specific date for membership talks with Cyprus.
10 Greece also wants the EU to begin the talks within six months of the EU's institutional overhaul and provide protection for Greece's textile industry, which is competitive with Turkey's.
11 According to Venizelos, Greece also objected to the 'negative climate' that prevailed at Monday's foreign ministers meeting.
12 Novice European Affairs Minister Giorgos Alexandros Mangakis, who attended the meeting, was sharply criticized by members of the ruling Socialist party and the opposition for failing to secure a specific date for EU membership talks with Cyprus. Many critics had called for his resignation.
13 Under the plan reached by the foreign ministers, the EU would also have started membership talks with Malta which, like Cyprus, applied in 1990 to join the union.
14 The EU executive commission had insisted on an end to the division of Cyprus before its membership could be contemplated.
15 Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974 and installed a government on the island's northern half that no other country recognizes. Greece has long accused Turkey of sabotaging efforts to end the Cypriot division.

Greece on Thursday said it won ' t allow the European Union to speed up a customs union with Turkey unless it receives further assurances regarding membership talks with Cyprus .
assurances
Why does Greece need these assurances? Have the other members been hesitant to discuss Cyprus' membership?