Greece on Thursday urged the European Union to respond clearly over Turkey's failure to recognize Cyprus, following European leaders expressed different stances on the issue.

"The (Greek) prime minister just recently stressed that the European Union must clearly respond to Turkey's unilateral statement (of continuing to not recognize Cyprus). This is our position, one that we are promoting in constant cooperation with the Cypriot government and other European governments," Greek Government Spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos told reporters.

The spokesman's remarks came following a warning by several Cypriot ministers a day earlier that the island republic would consider vetoing the commencement of EU-Turkey accession talks if the Union's "counter-statement" is not improved.

The "counter-statement" document was presented by the current British presidency, but Roussopoulos said the British document was "not judged as satisfactory."

Turkey agreed, at the end of July, to extend an existing customs agreement with the European Union to include the 10 latest EU member states, including Cyprus.

The custom agreement is a key condition for the opening of Ankara's EU accession talks set for October.

However, Turkey attached a declaration to the document, stating that its signature did not constitute recognition of Cyprus, whose internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot government Ankara refuses to endorse.

Turkey is the only country to recognize the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, proclaimed in 1983, nine years after Turkish troops seized the island's northern third in response to an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia aimed at uniting Cyprus with Greece.

Source: Xinhua