ANKARA, Feb 14 (AFP)  The European Union urged EU-hopeful Turkey Thursday to speed up democratic reforms, notably by abolishing the death penalty and granting the Kurdish minority the right to education in their mother tongue.
"The year 2002 will be an important, if not a crucial year, for the relations between the EU and Turkey," EU Enlargement Commissioner Guenter Verheugen told reporters here after talks with Foreign Minister Ismail Cem.

"We expect that the next steps will address issues which were not addressed... in areas like the death penalty and education," he added.

Last October, Turkey, the laggard among 13 EU hopefuls, passed a set of constitutional amendments, among them the abolition of the death penalty except for times of war, imminent threat of war and terrorism.

Under EU criteria, however, countries are required to abolish capital punishment for any crime.

Turkey is also under pressure to grant Kurds the right to education in their mother tongue, but it fears that such freedom could fan nationalist sentiment and rekindle a recently diminished Kurdish rebellion for self-rule in the southeast.

Earlier this month, Turkey passed another package of reforms covering freedom of expression despite stiff opposition from the government's nationalist wing. But these were attacked as inadequate by the media, legal experts and NGOs and also drew criticism from Verheugen on Thursday.

"In the Turkish context, of course, this is an improvement. If you see it in a purely western European context you will find some problems... you would expect the country (to be) more forthcoming," Verheugen said.

"I understand that a country is not like a racing car, but you can accelerate from zero to 100 miles per hour in a couple of seconds," he added.

The commissioner also said the EU would be watching how the reforms are implemented.

Cem acknowledged that there were "some difficulties, some problems, some ups and downs" in Turkey's reform process, but said both sides agreed that "the trend is positive."

He said Ankara was aiming to have dates set in 2003 for the start of its accession talks, but Verheugen said: "The timing depends on the progress that will be made here in the country."

The two sides expressed support for peace talks between the Turkish- and Greek-Cypriot communities in Cyprus to end the Mediterranean island's 28-year division, a thorn in the EU enlargement process.

The European Union has expressed hope that a unified Cyprus will join the 15-nation body.

Verheugen praised Turkey for organizing a meeting this week between the EU and the Organization of the Islamic Conference to promote Muslim-Christian tolerence after September 11.

"The meeting in Istanbul clearly showed the added value that Europe will get from Turkey as a member of our family. It demonstrated that Turkey has something to offer that nobody else in Europe could give," he said.

Turkey is the only Muslim-dominated candidate for EU membership.

Verheugen also met with Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and was scheduled to have talks with his deputy Mesut Yilmaz, who holds the EU affairs portfolio, and other officials later on Thursday.