Turkey has made no effort to ease tensions with Greece despite Athens' attempts to defuse a long-running territorial dispute and other differences, Greece's foreign minister said in an interview.

Dora Bakoyanni said the time was ripe for Turkey, as it reaches a decisive phase in its bid to join the European Union next year, to make concessions in talks to reunite Cyprus and over disputed waters in the eastern Mediterranean.

"While we made a conscious effort from the Greek side - such as the Greek prime minister's visit to Ankara - Turkey did not reciprocate," Bakoyanni said. "We have not had the improvement we hoped for this year."

"We will continue our strategy of trying to reduce tensions and resolve problems, but we expect specific steps from Turkey as well," she said in her elegant office opposite parliament.

A Turkish foreign ministry spokesman declined immediate comment, saying he needed first to see the minister's comments in full.

Uneasy neighbours Greece and Turkey came to the brink of war as recently as 1996 over a contested Aegean islet. Their fighter jets still stage mock dog-fights in disputed airspace.

Strains resurfaced last month when Athens lodged a diplomatic protest after a Turkish frigate escorted an oil exploration vessel into the contested waters of the southern Aegean, thought to contain petroleum and gas reserves.

Both sides possess 6 nautical miles (11 km) off their shores in the Aegean, but Greece wants to expand this to 12 miles under the Law of the Sea. Turkey says this rule cannot apply in the Aegean and has said its application would be a cause for war.

"This is anachronistic and outside the logic of international law to have casus belli because a country ratifies the Law of the Sea," said Bakoyanni, 54, Greece's first female foreign minister and the daughter of a former prime minister.

"No encouragement" on Cyprus

Turkey, which invaded Cyprus in 1974 after a brief Greek-inspired coup, was aware that reuniting the island was "a necessary requirement" for its EU accession, Bakoyannis said.

Talks between leaders of the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities resumed in September after a four-year hiatus. Ankara has 30,000 troops stationed in north Cyprus and refuses to recognise the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member state.

"It's an unacceptable situation of 35 years of occupation that must end," she said. "I see no signs of honest encouragement from Turkey at this moment. I want to hope that there will be."

Turkey's ruling Islamist-rooted AK party has seen its reform agenda stutter over the last year, amid graft allegations, a constitutional crisis and social and economic difficulties.

Next year, the EU will review Turkey's accession progress - including Cyprus. With eight of its 35 chapters already frozen, Ankara's three-year-old EU talks could grind to a halt.

The minister said there was also "deadlock" in the ongoing name dispute with the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, which shares the same title as a province of north Greece.

Skopje filed a lawsuit against Greece in the International Court of Justice in The Hague accusing Athens of blocking its NATO membership. Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski has said the country will not relinquish its name to join NATO or the EU.

"Mr Gruevski, with his actions, only worsens the political deadlock with both Greece and Europe," Bakoyanni said. "He shows no sign of an honest willingness to resolve the issue."

Source: Reuters