Europe's ties with Russia and Turkey dominate a summit between the leaders of France, Germany and Poland, with Chancellor Angela Merkel due to propose stepping up the pressure on Ankara over its troubled EU candidacy. Merkel wants the European Union to give Turkey 18 months to open its ports to Cyprus as a condition for resuming full membership talks and will seek her counterparts' backing for the deadline, a government spokesman said.
"She believes that this could prove an appropriate and sensible instrument," spokesman Thomas Steg told reporters on Monday.
The chancellor is due to meet with French President Jacques Chirac before they hold a three-way summit of the so-called Weimar Triangle with Polish President Lech Kaczynski in Mettlach in western Germany.
Poland last month drew a sharp rebuke from Berlin when it stone-walled the start of talks with Russia about a new partnership with the European Union.
Warsaw was acting in retaliation for a Russian embargo on Polish meat and plant products, and at the weekend Kaczynski again broke ranks as he sharply criticised Germany's policy of strengthening ties with Russia.
Merkel has made energy security for Europe, which depends in part on relations with Russia with its rich natural resources, one of the main aims of the German presidency of the 25-member bloc.
Steg said the partnership with Russia would be raised at the Mettlach summit, along with the tensions in the Middle East.
The summit was originally scheduled for July but postponed amid a quarrel over unflattering German press coverage of Kaczynski. It now comes less than a month before Berlin takes over the rotating EU presidency on January 1.
Turkey's candidacy is a divisive issue within the bloc and is likely to prove one of the major headaches of the presidency for Merkel.
The European Commission last month recommended partially halting Turkey's membership talks because Ankara refuses to extend a customs union with the EU to include Cyprus and nine other countries that joined the bloc in 2004.
Ankara began membership talks with the EU 13 months ago but does not recognise the Cypriot government and backs the Turkish Cypriot mini-state, which no other country recognises.
