BRUSSELS, Belgium - European Union foreign ministers decided Monday to freeze parts of entry talks with Turkey on Monday over Ankara's refusal to open its ports to trade with EU member Cyprus.

Germany's Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, 2nd left, talks with Austria's Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, left, while Filnland's Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, right, shows documents to EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn during a round table meeting of EU foreign ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels, Monday Dec. 11, 2006. [AP]

EU foreign ministers agreed to freeze eight of 35 "chapters" in entry negotiations relating to transport and trade, significantly slowing down Turkey's membership talks. EU leaders are expected to endorse the decision at a two-day summit beginning Thursday

The consensus came as a surprise after weeks of division within the EU over how to punish Turkey for its refusal to honor a 2005 pact to open its ports and airports to 10 new EU members - including Cyprus.

Cyprus has been divided since Turkey invaded in 1974 following a failed coup staged by supporters of union with Greece. Ankara is the only government to recognize the Turkish Cypriot state, but it does not recognize the Greek Cypriot government in the south that led the island into the EU in 2004.

Some of the EU ministers pushed for a hard line against Ankara; others urged leniency for fear of alienating the strategic nation which hopes to become the first mainly Muslim country to join the EU.

The foreign ministers stressed the importance of yearly reviews of Turkey's progress in the membership talks that began in October 2005 and are expected to last at least a decade, but set no new deadlines for re-evaluating the negotiations.

"Turkey has to understand it has no short cuts," said Cypriot Foreign Minister George Lillikas. "I hope that after this decision, it will begin to fulfill its obligations."

Ankara has maintained that the Cyprus issue is not Turkey's to resolve, and has insisted that the EU first end the economic isolation of Turkish Cypriots.

"This government is not going to have to choose between Cyprus on one side or the EU on the other," Turkish Justice Minister and government spokesman Cemil Cicek said in Ankara.

He said the Turkish government was trying both to "keep Turkey's future clear and to protect the interests and rights of our Cypriot kinsmen."

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