AFTER 40 years knocking on Europe’s door, Turkey became the first Muslim country to start membership talks with the EU early today after Britain brokered an 11th-hour deal and persuaded Austria to abandon its veto threat.

The EU took one of the biggest steps in its 50-year history after two days of negotiations that seemed perpetually on the brink of collapse.

In return, Austria succeeded in forcing the EU to open membership talks with its close ally, Croatia, which took place minutes after the talks started with Turkey. The EU had postponed those talks in March because Croatia was deemed to be protecting a leading war crimes suspect.

Abdullah Gul, the Turkish Foreign Minister, dashed to Luxembourg to start the talks in a special ceremony chaired by Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary.

After Turkey’s entry talks began, Mr Straw said: “We have just made history. The EU and Turkey agree we want this ever closer relationship. It means we have an EU founded on values, not history.”

A triumphant Mr Gul said: “I hope this will be good for Turkey, for the EU and the world. It is a win-win situation.”

The start of talks averted a rift between predominantly Christian Europe and its huge Muslim neighbour to the East, and rescued Britain’s EU presidency. Turkey’s entry talks are expected to take ten years, when it would become the largest member state in EU.

At one point the Bush Administration, which wants to tie Turkey firmly to the West, became so concerned that it risked the charge of interference in EU affairs by intervening directly.

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, telephoned Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, to reassure him of Washington’s support.

“A Turkey anchored in Europe will be an even more reliable partner for the transatlantic family and a positive force for advancing peace, prosperity and democracy,” the State Department said.

The negotiations lasted for much of Sunday night and into yesterday, with Austria insisting that Turkey should be offered only an “alternative partnership” and refusing to back down. Mr Straw declared at one stage that the talks were “on the precipice”.

European leaders, including Tony Blair, had given warning that blocking Turkey would plunge the troubled EU even deeper into crisis, and inflame relations between Islam and the West. Turkey has threatened to abandon its attempt to join the EU if offered anything less than full membership.

The deadlock with Austria was broken by the timely arrival in Luxembourg of Carla del Ponte, the UN’s chief war crimes prosecutor. She brought with her a report declaring that Croatia was now co-operating fully with her attempt to bring to justice General Ante Gotovina, a leading Croatian war crimes suspect.

The report, which diplomats admitted was surprisingly positive, opened the way for talks to start immediately with Croatia. Its membership talks collapsed in March the day before they were due to start after the UN claimed that it was not co-operating in the hunt for General Gotovina and others.

But even then a deal was uncertain. Turkey started raising objections, insisting that it had not given its own seal of approval, and Mr Gul delayed his departure to consider the draft text. Ankara was concerned about a paragraph in the negotiating framework which insisted that it align its policies in international organisations with those of the EU.

The Turkish National Security Council ordered the Government not to agree to the talks until the implications of this condition were clarified. The fear in Ankara was that it meant that it will not be able to veto Cyprus, which it occupies with 35,000 troops, from joining Nato.

Turkish media has been speculating that if Cyprus joined Nato, it could invoke the “self-defence” clause and insist that the US defend it against Turkey’s illegal occupation.

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