THE Bush Administration used the full weight of its considerable diplomatic muscle yesterday to pressure Europe into opening the door for Turkey’s entry into the European Union.

The American campaign appeared to have reaped dividends last night when Turkey announced it would open its airbases to US warplanes mounting military operations against Iraq in the event of an offensive against its southern neighbour.

However, Yasar Yakis, the Turkish Foreign Minister, said that another UN resolution would be needed if there was to be a war in Iraq as the present resolution does not allow the automatic resorting to armed intervention.

With only a week to go before the EU summit in Copenhagen, where Turkey’s proposed membership is likely to dominate a heated debate among Europe’s leaders, Washington has given warning to Brussels that turning down Ankara’s application would be a lost opportunity that it would regret later.

The unusually blunt message was delivered by Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Defence Secretary, who arrived in Ankara yesterday to champion Turkey’s EU application and to offer financial assistance to bolster its troubled economy. Mr Wolfowitz clearly wanted to help Ankara in the hope of winning Turkey’s pledge for military assistance in the event of war with its neighbour.

Earlier in London Mr Wolfowitz conceded that Turkey’s entry to the EU was a European issue, but he insisted: “We are going to cheer as hard from the sidelines as we possibly can.”

Washington regards Turkey not only as a military ally from the days of the Cold War, but also as a modern secular Islamic state that could set an example for reform throughout the Muslim world. Its intervention has been greeted with delight by Turkey’s new Justice and Development Party (AKP) Government, which is racing through reforms in an effort to meet the EU’s criteria to be considered for membership. Yesterday the Cabinet approved 31 amendments to laws designed to ban torture.

It is doubtful, however, that enough changes can be made before the December 12 EU summit to persuade sceptics in Europe to begin the process of admitting Turkey.

In August, after years of dithering, Turkey’s outgoing coalition passed a set of previously inconceivable EU harmonisation reforms. These included lifting restrictions on Kurdish-language education and broadcasts and abolishing capital punishment in peacetime — which resulted in the death sentence on Abdullah Ocalan, the Kurdish guerrilla leader, being commuted to life imprisonment. Yet a European Commission progress report published soon afterwards pointed to shortfalls in the freedom of expression and Turkey’s so far slack record on implementation.

The best that Ankara can probably hope for at Copenhagen is an offer to set a date within the next two years at which Turkey will be given a timetable for accession talks, provided that it has met conditions on democracy and human rights.

The case for ruling out Turkish entry altogether was proclaimed last month by Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, the former French President and present chief of the convention that is drafting an EU constitution. The Union would not survive the entry of a big Muslim society (of 70 million people) with only a toehold in geographical Europe, he said.

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