COPENHAGEN, December 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The head of Turkey's ruling party accused the European Union on Monday of applying double standards to candidate states, urging the bloc to grant Ankara a date to start accession talks as a reward for passing a raft of political reforms.

"The only (candidate) country without a date is Turkey. The fact that Turkey has not been given a date is a double standard in itself. There's no other way to explain it," Recep Tayyip Erdogan, head of the Justice and Development Party, said after talks with the Danish EU presidency.

The outburst came just three days before the EU meets for a landmark enlargement summit in Copenhagen, at which it has said it will make a decision on Turkey's bid, with Ankara saying it has now done enough to be granted a date to start talks, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

The European Union has repeatedly insisted that Turkey must implement the “political reforms” it has passed if it wants to open formal accession talks.

"If and when Turkey fulfills the political criteria, Turkey can get a date," said Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, repeating what has now become the EU's mantra for Turkey's struggling bid to join the economic and political union.

Rasmussen added that the European Commission would hold its next scheduled review of Turkey's progress on political reforms in October 2003, hinting that the Muslim state would not imminently be granted a date to open negotiations.

Erdogan warned that the European Union would have to live with the consequences if it failed to harness Turkey's "psychological readiness" to join the 15-member bloc.

But in an interview with a Turkish newspaper, Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis appeared to back down from Ankara's hardline position of demanding a start date for talks in Copenhagen.

"It is understandable that EU leaders want to see how the reforms are implemented. We think a period of six months would be sufficient to see that," he told the Radikal daily.

Turkey passed a first batch of political reforms in August, notably banning the death penalty in peacetime, hoping to meet EU accession terms, and has promised to push further changes through parliament as soon as it can.

But the European Union has repeatedly said it wants to see “concrete results”.

"What we need to see now is clear implementation, not just on paper... but in real life," Rasmussen said after his talks with Erdogan.

Turkey first applied for EU membership in 1987 and has watched as eight countries that were allied with the then-Soviet Union have overtaken Ankara in the accession race.

They, together with Mediterranean states Malta and Cyprus, expect to get the go-ahead at the Copenhagen talks to join the EU in 2004.

Erdogan was later due in Washington, where he was to hold talks with US President George W. Bush Tuesday, December 10, before returning to Copenhagen Wednesday, December 11.