The European Union has claimed breakthroughs in its talks with several countries seeking EU membership and said enlargement is firmly on track.
But diplomats cautioned that even the most advanced candidates had to finish talks on the most sensitive areas of agriculture and free movement of people.
"We are obviously in a new and decisive phase of the negotiations . . . There are breakthroughs regarding the internal market and the environment," said Swedish Ambassador Mr Gunnar Lund, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency.
Chief negotiators from the 12 candidate countries were in Brussels talking with the envoys of the 15 member states on opening and closing the so-called chapters covering the EU legislation they must adopt before joining.
The EU has said it will accept the first new members by the start of 2003, although most observers say 2004 is a more realistic date - even for front-runners such as Hungary and Slovenia.
Hungary's chief negotiator, Mr Endre Juhasz, told reporters his country was trying to focus on preparing its economy and laws for membership - not on the date of accession.
"I'm not expecting a fixed target date for enlargement. What we expect are encouraging words about the negotiation process," he said, adding accession might well not happen in 2003.
Hungary ended talks in three areas today: free movement of goods, free movement of services and company law. There are 31 chapters in all.
Poland, by far the biggest candidate country with 40 million people, also expressed satisfaction after closing two chapters - on customs union and free movement of goods.
"I am deeply convinced that we are in the frontline of the negotiating countries," Polish chief negotiator Mr Jan Kulakowski said.
"We don't ask for any privileges because we are big, but we think EU enlargement into Central and Eastern Europe without Poland would be something quite poor."Germany and Austria, fearing a big influx of workers from the east, have lobbied for a transition period of up to seven years after enlargement before workers from applicant nations are allowed to move freely.
The Czech Republic, which also hopes to be in the next wave of enlargement, ended talks on freedom of services and company law. The Czechs and Hungarians reached a compromise over the patent protection for pharmaceuticals.
Cyprus, known for its booming offshore banking sector, provisionally closed the chapter on free movement of capital after satisfying EU concerns about money laundering.
It also won a concession that EU citizens would have to wait five years after Cyprus joins the bloc before being able to buy second homes on there.
The Swedish ambassador, Mr Gunnar Lund, singled out the tiny ex-Yugoslav republic of Slovenia for special praise after it became the first candidate country to provisionally complete talks on the environment, one of the toughest of the 31 chapters.
Many candidates - burdened with Soviet-era smokestack industries - face a long, slow and expensive haul to comply with EU pollution standards.
Today's talks involved six candidates - Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta.
Tomorrow, chief negotiators from Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia and the three Baltic states - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - will talks to the EU envoys.