Merkel: 'rules changed' for Turkish EU bid

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Turkey Monday that its membership talks with the European Union did not guarantee accession and urged it to grant trade privileges to EU-member Cyprus.
"The rules of the game have changed" since Turkey first applied to become a member of the bloc five decades ago, Merkel said through an interpreter after talks with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan."The (accession) negotiations are an open-ended process. We should now pursue this open-ended process," she added, suggesting that Turkey's integration with the bloc does not have to be full membership.Along with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Merkel remains one of the staunchest opponents of Turkey's bid to join the European Union, arguing that a vast, relatively poor country with a mainly Muslim 71-million population has no place in Europe.She has instead proposed a "privileged partnership" between Turkey and the bloc, an alternative Ankara flatly rejects.Merkel however stressed the immediate task for Ankara was to open its ports to vessels from Cyprus - an EU member Ankara does not recognise - under a customs union accord with the Union.
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