ANKARA (Reuters) -- Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan condemned a decision by the European Union to partially suspend his country's accession talks but vowed to press on with reforms aimed at preparing Ankara for membership.

EU foreign ministers decided on Monday evening to suspend Turkey's accession talks in eight of the 35 chapters, or policy areas, into which the process is divided following Ankara's continued refusal to open its ports to traffic from Cyprus.

"This decision is unfair to Turkey ... Despite our efforts, Turkey-EU relations are passing through a serious test," Erdogan told members of his ruling AK Party.

"Our reform process will continue with the same decisiveness," he said.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said the EU ministers' decision betrayed "a lack of vision".

In encouraging news for Ankara, EU Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Tuesday the bloc was ready to open new negotiating chapters with Turkey soon.

"Turkey is ready to proceed as soon as possible ... with the opening of chapters for which technical preparations have been completed," Rehn told a news conference in Strasbourg, France.

Separately, EU sources said current EU president Finland hoped to restart talks before the end of the year, possibly on the economic and monetary affairs chapter.

On the vexed Cyprus issue, Erdogan sounded a defiant note, saying Turkey would take no unilateral moves to resolve the row.

Last week, Turkey had mooted the possibility of opening one port to Cypriot shipping for one year, on unilateral basis. His latest remarks suggested that proposal no longer stood.

Ankara says it will not open its ports to the Greek Cypriots until the EU lifts trade restrictions against the Turkish Cypriots.