Turkish President Abdullah Gul said it is necessary to focus more on EU issue in 2008.

Gul who visited Turkish Secretariat General for the EU (ABGS) in Ankara on Wednesday recalled that Turkey actually started membership negotiations with the EU in 2005.

The world closely follows the developments in Turkey-EU integration process, Gul said and stated that such an interest shows that Turkey-Europe project is not an ordinary project with limited scope.

Gul said continuation of reforms provides modernization of Turkey, and this process increases living standards and quality of services in many areas including education, science, jurisdiction, defense, industry, agriculture, human rights, environment protection and city planning.

Gul noted that EU's enlargement project will continue, and Turkey's full membership will be a part of this project.

He said EU enlargement strategy paper clearly says that chapter headings are opened for negotiation as long as technical conditions are met.

"Thus, it stresses that prevention of negotiations due to political reasons is against EU's own commitments and the nature of accession talks," Gul added.

Gul expressed belief that Turkish government, Parliament and all political parties will focus on EU issue more in 2008.

Gul said EU must be loyal to the principle of pacta sund servanda, and EU cannot give up this principle, otherwise it would deny its own values.

On the other hand, Turkish Foreign Minister and Chief EU Negotiator Ali Babacan said Turkey took very important steps in EU process, and adopted political and economic reforms. He added that Turkey is passing through an important transformation process.

Babacan said efforts with EU membership bid will continue in the next period with determination. He added that EU process is a state project.