TURKEY’S 40-year campaign to join the European Union is on the brink of collapse after emergency talks between EU foreign ministers broke up without agreement just hours before entry negotiations were due to start.

Amid frenetic diplomacy and warnings of dire consequences if the EU rejected Turkey, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, chaired fraught negotiations through the night in an attempt to stop Austria from torpedoing the membership talks.

Failure to secure the start of Turkey’s entry into the Union will be humiliating for Tony Blair, who made it one of the priorities of his six-month presidency of the EU.

Initial optimism gave way to gloom as the meeting of European foreign ministers ground on through a series of informal and formal meetings, with diplomats reporting no progress.

A dinner of EU foreign ministers overran by two hours as EU countries put pressure on Austria to back down. By the early hours, tempers were flaring and British diplomats stormed around the EU complex with long faces.

The talks are due to start again this morning, but hopes of securing a deal were fading last night. A clearly exhausted Mr Straw said: “We have been unable to reach agreement. It’s a frustrating situation, but I hope and pray we may be able to reach agreement. We have a situation where 24 have decided to move forward and one has not. It is not the first time that has happened, and I am sure it will not be the last.”

A review of Croatia’s progress towards starting membership talks — an issue close to Austria’s heart — due to be held today has been postponed by Britain, as holder of the EU presidency, until the mandate for Turkey is resolved.

Membership talks with Turkey, which were agreed in principle last December, had been due to start at a special ceremony this afternoon, beginning a process that is expected to take ten years.

Austria has demanded that Turkey be offered a “privileged partnership” as an alternative to full membership, an offer that Turkey has made clear is unacceptable. Although Austria stands alone on the issue, it has the power of veto.

Previously agreed points were being called into question as Turkey started raising objections to a demand that it must stop vetoing Cyprus’s membership of Nato.

In a final attempt to change Austria’s mind, Mr Blair telephoned Wolfgang Schüssel, the Austrian Chancellor, and Mr Straw held repeated meetings with Ursula Plassnik, the Austrian Foreign Minister, to warn her of serious consequences if the EU rejected the Muslim country. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Prime Minister of Turkey, also phoned Herr Schüssel to try to reach a deal.

Before the talks, Mr Straw gave warning about the impact it would have on relations between Islam and the West if Austria wielded its veto: “This is a crucial meeting for the future of the European Union. We’re concerned about a so-called clash of civilisations. We are concerned about this theological-political divide, which could open up even further the boundary between so-called Christian-heritage states and those of Islamic heritage. The heavy responsibility rests on all member states.”

Mr Erdogan told Turkish television: “Either the EU will decide to become a world force and a world player, which would show its political maturity, or it will limit itself to a Christian club.”

Opponents of Turkish membership claim that the country is too big, too poor and too culturally different to join the EU. With the EU in crisis over the rejection of its constitution by French and Dutch voters, they claim that it is not capable of absorbing the Muslim country.

Opinion polls show that the majority of EU citizens are opposed to Turkey’s membership, with opposition particularly high in Austria, France, Germany and the Netherlands.

Frau Plassnik said: “We should now listen to the concerns voiced by so many people across Europe.”

Turkey’s moderate Islamist Government has made joining the EU its top political priority, and completed a feverish round of reforms — including giving more rights to its Kurdish minority and abolishing the death sentence — to meet the criteria for starting entry talks. To join the EU, it would need to adopt about 80,000 pages of European legislation, which is expected to take a decade.

Rejection at the last minute would be a serious political blow. Abdullah Gul, the Turkish Foreign Minister, summoned his political advisers last night and told Mr Straw he would not fly to Luxembourg until he had seen the negotiating mandate approved by the 25-nation bloc.

Mr Gul has also made clear that if the talks do not start now, Turkey will not come back to the table. “I cannot see them happening again,” he told the Yeni Safak newspaper.

European diplomats believe that Austria’s hardline stance is partly dictated by internal politics, with 80 per cent of Austrians and all main political parties opposing Turkey’s membership.

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