(Reuters) - The European Commission decided on Wednesday to recommend a partial suspension of Turkey's negotiations to join the European Union after it failed to open its ports to EU member Cyprus, EU sources said.
The EU executive proposed freezing talks on eight of the 35 policy areas or "chapters" into which the accession talks are divided, one source said.
The recommendation was brought forward by one week from December 6 in an effort to avoid leaks after talks brokered by the EU's Finnish presidency on the Cyprus trade issue failed on Monday, reports Trend.
"The Commission wants to send a signal that Turkey must meet its obligations," a senior EU official said.
EU foreign ministers will take the decision at a December 11 meeting.
Before then, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen is due to visit Turkey on Friday but the Commission move seems unlikely to persuade Ankara to soften its stance on Cyprus, diplomats said.
The policy sectors that would be frozen involve the EU's internal market, such as the free movement of goods, as well as customs, transport and maritime affairs, the sources said.
The Commission would recommend that negotiations proceed on the other chapters. So far, Turkey has provisionally concluded talks on just one chapter -- science and research. Cyprus is blocking the opening of any more sectoral negotiations.
Another source said the recommendation set no new deadline for Turkey to comply on Cyprus, averting Ankara's worst fears.
A spokesman accompanying Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul at a NATO summit in Riga said Ankara was only aware of rumors so far and could not comment. "Let us see why they have hastily decided to push this thing forward," he said.
Turkey's lira currency and stock market opened firmer as stronger foreign markets offset the widely anticipated negative news from Brussels.
"The suspension of chapters will slow down the reform process in Turkey. It's a big loss of incentive The government will have difficulty telling people why there is need to reform," analyst Huseyin Bagci of Middle East Technical University in Ankara said.
EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn hinted at an early decision on Turkey at a dinner on Tuesday at which he was named "Commissioner of the Year" by the weekly European Voice.
In his acceptance speech, Rehn joked that the panel might not have picked him if the ceremony had taken place a day later -- after he announces the recommendation on Turkey at a news conference, a participant said.
EU leaders have made clear they could not continue "business as usual" with Turkey if it failed to meet a treaty obligation to open its ports and airports to traffic from Cyprus this year.
Turkey has said it will only open its ports to shipping from Cyprus if the EU fulfils a pledge to end the economic isolation of Turkish Cypriot northern Cyprus, which the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government in Nicosia has blocked.
Ankara says the Cyprus problem, the object of protracted United Nations mediation efforts, should not be linked to Turkey's EU accession bid.
Turkey, which invaded Cyprus in 1974 in response to a Greek Cypriot coup backed by Greece's then ruling military junta, does not recognize the Nicosia government and backs the Turkish Cypriot mini-state, which it alone recognizes.
"The suspension will definitely create more anti-European feeling here in Turkey," Bagci said.
The EU setback for Turkey, a compromise between Ankara's supporters who want to limit the damage and hardliners who wanted the whole process suspended, comes just after it received a boost from an unexpected quarter -- Pope Benedict.
On a visit to Ankara on Tuesday, Benedict told Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan: "We are not political but we wish for Turkey to join the EU," according to the Turkish leader.