11.   Fogh Rasmussen said he expected a decision on Cyprus and the other candidate nations at an EU summit in Copenhagen in December.

12.   Foreign Minister Anna Lindh on Thursday apologized to Turkey for comments earlier this week in which she implied the EU candidate nation was a dictatorship.

13.   Formal invitations to the candidate nations are due to be issued in July at a NATO summit meeting President Clinton would attend in Madrid, Spain.

14.   Foreign Minister Anna Lindh on Thursday apologized to Turkey for comments earlier this week in which she implied the EU candidate nation is a dictatorship.

15.   France was seeking a compromise so Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit can join other leaders from candidate nations attending the opening day of the Nice meeting.

16.   However, poorer EU nations, especially Spain, fear losing funds to the rust-belt of the former East Germany and candidate nations further east.

17.   In a statement, they welcomed pledges by a dozen candidate EU nations, most of them from eastern Europe, to join the ban.

18.   Keen to preserve farm subsidies, France reluctantly accepted a delay in a decision on aid to farmers and rural areas in candidate nations, officials said.

19.   Later, the EU foreign ministers met with their colleagues from candidate nations Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Estonia.

20.   Leaders from the candidate nations will meet with the EU leaders on Friday when the summit closes.