TAMPERE (AFP) - Turkey's European Union membership talks were thrown into doubt on Monday after the failure of last-ditch negotiations aimed at resolving a dispute between Ankara and Cyprus.

Finland, which holds the rotating EU presidency, said its talks with Turkey and Cyprus over an EU customs accord had collapsed and that the European Commission would now consider whether to recommend partial suspension of Ankara's membership talks until further notice.

"An agreement could not be reached," Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja told reporters following separate meetings with his Turkish and Cypriot counterparts, Abdullah Gul and George Lillikas, in the southern Finnish town of Tampere. "There will be consequences" for Turkey's accession talks, Tuomioja said. "Business as usual cannot continue."

EU foreign ministers are expected to take a decision on the next step for Turkey when they meet on December 11.

Under a customs union agreement with the European Union, Turkey must open its ports and airports to Cyprus, whose Greek-Cypriot administration it does not recognize.

Ankara has refused to do so until the 25-nation bloc keeps its 2004 promise to ease economic sanctions imposed on the island's breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), recognized only by Ankara.

Finland, which is a supporter of Turkey's EU membership, has been trying to resolve the stalemate since September with a proposal that included Turkey opening its ports and the EU trading directly with the self-proclaimed TRNC.

Turkey wants the EU presidency to include the opening of the Turkish Cypriot airport of Ercan to international flights. At present it serves only for flights to and from Turkey. That suggestion is firmly opposed by the Greek Cypriots.

The EU presidency is also proposing the transfer to the United Nations of the ghost-town of Varosha, a Famagusta suburb from which Greek Cypriot inhabitants fled in 1974 during the Turkish invasion.

Neither side in the negotiations has been prepared to accept the Finnish measures in total.

Cypriot government spokesman Christodoulos Pashardes laid blame for the breakdown of the talks on the "negative" stance maintained by Ankara.

"The failure was not down to us ... we did everything we could," Pashardes told Cyprus state radio. "We've always been positive to the (Finnish) initiative and the proposal, we did not set any terms".

The European Commission voiced disappointment without suggesting that either side was at fault.

"The circumstances did not permit that an agreement be reached," said European Commission spokeswoman on enlargement Krisztina Nagy in Brussels.

Nagy told reporters that the Commission and the Finnish presidency would "manage the continuation" of Turkey's EU accession negotiations, but that the joint intention was to let EU foreign ministers decide on the matter in December.

Many EU watchers say a possible sanction would be the freezing of some of the 35 accession chapters which all EU candidate nations must satisfactorily complete before being allowed into the club.

Cyprus has opposed this idea, saying it would have no effect as other chapters, on sectors unrelated to customs or trade, could be opened instead.

Ankara rejects any link between the Cyprus problem and its membership talks.

Turkey's accession process is expected to take at least a decade and no guarantees have been provided of it eventual success.

Last week, Turkey said Ankara would not respond to EU pressure over Cyprus.

"Issues such as Cyprus cannot be solved with deadlines or blackmail," Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had also ruled out any concessions.

"If they (the EU) put unacceptable conditions before us, it will not be possible to make progress," the Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying.