Angry with Germany

"Seriously, I expected more from Germany", which currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU, he told German magazine Der Spiegel.

He was speaking ahead of a visit to Germany on Sunday, where he is due to open the Hanover Industrial Fair alongside Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Erdogan also explicitly reproached Germany for his lack of invitation to the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome in Berlin three weeks ago.

That was a "grave error," the Turkish prime minister said, adding that it had "overshadowed the German presidency.

Clear timeline

"We would like a clear idea of a date, a roadmap, a calendar for negotiations" to show the EU was serious about Turkey joining its ranks, he told the magazine. He proposed 2014 or 2015 as a possible date for membership.

But if the EU "doesn't want us, it should say so clearly now," he said. "If we are not wanted, the two sides need not continue wasting their time in talks."

Merkel against membership

Merkel is personally and politically, through her Christian Democratic Union party, against Turkish membership of the EU. Instead she would prefer to see the secular Islamic nation become a "privileged partner" of the 27-member bloc.

Public opinion in Germany, the EU's most populous country which has 2.5 million Turkish residents, is generally against Turkish membership.

However, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a social democrat, supports full membership.

"If we really trust Turkey, that will improve security and stability in Europe," he told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung regional newspaper.

Turks against Erdogan

Chanting secularist slogans and waving Turkish flags, more than 300,000 people from all over Turkey meanwhile rallied in the Turkish capital Ankara on Saturday to discourage Erdogan, a conservative with an Islamist political past, from running for the presidency.

The demonstrators marched to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern secular Turkey in 1923, transforming the normally hushed venue into an unprecedented demonstration ground.

"Turkey is secular, it will remain secular," "The presidency's roads are closed to Sharia (Islamic law)," "An imam cannot become a president," they chanted, reflecting concerns that Erdogan and his Justice and Devlopment Party (AKP) are not truly committed to the mainly Muslim nation's secular system.

Erdogan has yet to say whether or not he will run for the presidency when the AKP-dominated parliament elects a successor to the staunchly secularist Ahmet Necdet Sezer next month.

The AKP has pledged commitment to secularism and carried out a series of democracy reforms to boost Turkey's bid to join the European Union. Yet, the secular establishment, including the powerful army, remains sceptical of Erdogan's avowed rejection of his radical Islamist past.