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EU-SUMMIT

¨         According to The New York Times, the 15 leaders of the EU rejected Turkey's demand to set a date to begin negotiations for its eventual admission to the organization. The Europeans, the newspaper continues, this morning reached the agreement only to meet in December 2004 to decide whether Turkey was democratic and respectful enough of human rights to begin negotiations. If by that date Turkey has fulfilled formal criteria for all candidate states set out in a 1993 document, accession negotiations with Turkey  will open, Danish Prime Minister Rasmussen, current President of the European Union, reportedly said. Turkey, adds the daily, has been praised for laws adopted in August to abolish the death penalty in peacetime, permit greater freedom of expression and increase the rights of minorities, but a number of EU members insisted that Turkey must carry out the reforms.  Mr. Rasmussen also warned Poland on Thursday not to push too far and appealed to all the candidates to accept the deal on the table or risk delaying their entry from May 2004 until 2007 or even longer. Prime Minister Gul, a Reuters news agency's dispatch reports, today slammed the EU's decision to give Turkey only a conditional date for entry talks and accused French President Chirac of turning the EU against his country. "I cannot accept the paragraph on Turkey. There is great discrimination here," Mr. Gul purportedly said. "There is an act of prejudice against us, and there needs to be great efforts to correct this. Clear sentences and words should be put into the draft to remove uncertainty," he further added.

¨         A Reuters dispatch states that the EU plans to boost aid to Balkan candidates Bulgaria and Romania to support their efforts to join the bloc in 2007, according to a draft statement issued by the EU's Danish presidency today. It also endorsed a proposal of the EU's executive, to increase aid for the two Balkan neighbors. The draft statement stressed that each candidate would be "judged on its merits." On Thursday, an AP dispatch reports, the EU leaders agreed on a 40.4 billion euro welcome package for 10 candidates due to join in May 2004: Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus and Malta. The dispatch also reports, as does the New York Times, that Mr. Rasmussen was confident candidates would accept the offer on the table saying, "There is no money." The EU reportedly drafted two invitations for Cyprus, one for a united island, one with it still divided, and set a deadline of 1530 GMT Friday before deciding which to issue.

IRAQ

¨         The Financial Times reports that Defense Secretary Rumsfeld yesterday lifted the curtain on a secretive U.S. exercise in Qatar as he toured what would be the main U.S. military command and control base in an attack on Iraq. The exercise dubbed Internal Look, the newspaper adds, is only a computer simulation and its game scenario remains heavily classified, although it is believed to be a dry run for action in Iraq. It will test the new U.S. command post in Qatar, as well as new military doctrines recently evolved to take advantage of overwhelming U.S. technological superiority on the battlefield, and the new demands of the war on terror. "The 21^st century and the global war on terrorism means we have to think about the way we do our work in the military a bit differently," General Tommy Franks was quoted saying. He also reportedly added: "What we know for sure is that enhanced flexibility provides my boss, provides the President of the United States, additional options with respect to where we are able to deploy, what the timelines for deployment look like."

¨         The New York Times reports American and UN officials saying that American intelligence agencies have reached a preliminary conclusion that Iraq's 12,000-page declaration fails to account for chemical and biological agents missing when inspectors left Iraq four years ago. Iraq's declaration on its nuclear program too, they reportedly added, leaves open a host of questions. Among them is why Iraq was seeking to buy uranium in Africa in recent years. Britain believes that the nuclear program is still active, but several years from producing weapons. The omissions themselves however, the newspaper comments, pose a new challenge for the Bush administration: it needs to decide whether to declare that Iraq has failed to meet one of the most important requirements  set by the UN and whether to try to use that failure as a justification for American military action. Another possible case of "non-cooperation" by Baghdad with the UN resolution, according to a senior administration official cited by the Washington Post, is represented by any failure to produce scientists that UN inspectors want to interview outside the country. The UN resolution, the daily notes, taking into account that Saddam has already punished the relatives of defectors in the past, includes a provision for "immediate" family members to accompany interviewees out of the country. Baghdad has been informally told that it has to prepare a list of all personnel involved in past and present programs, but chief inspector Mr. Blix has delayed making a formal request while the details of the interviews are still being worked out.

BALKANS

¨         An AFP dispatch reports that the EU was set to agree today to launch unprecedented peacekeeping operations in the Balkans but still needs approval from Turkey, which has suffered a setback in its EU membership bid. The EU said it is ready to send its troops into Macedonia (sic) "as soon as possible" and is also willing to deploy soldiers in Bosnia to replace NATO forces in both countries. The move was announced at the Copenhagen summit after European leaders on Thursday formally approved an accord establishing permanent relations with NATO.

 FINAL ITEM