Madrid - The Spanish Prime Minister, Mr Jose Maria Aznar, left for Istanbul yesterday for a 24-hour visit to Turkey and neighbouring Bulgaria. The two countries are candidates to join the EU. Spain is next in line to hold the EU's rotating presidency.
Mr Aznar will have a working dinner today with his Turkish counterpart, Mr Bulent Ecevit, in which he is expected to stress the need for Turkey to introduce reforms before its EU candidacy can be approved.
He will then go to Sofia to meet the Bulgarian Prime Minister and former king, Mr Simeon de Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha.