Franse president Chirac overweegt referendum voor elke nieuwe uitbreiding EU (en)

French President Jacques Chirac could announce within the coming days that he intends to put the question of whether Turkey should join the European Union to a referendum.

According to French daily Le Monde, the President is preparing to change the French Constitution so that each time a country is to join the European Union, French citizens are asked their opinion.

This move would therefore result in a referendum on Ankara's attempts to join the 25-nation bloc.

The issue is set to be taken up by French MPs when they debate the changes to the French Constitution brought about by the evolution of the EU institution, writes Le Monde.

By doing this, Mr Chirac is hoping to avoid a situation where the issue of Turkey - a volatile topic in France - gets mixed up with ratifying the European Constitution.

The European Constitution, which is already causing much debate in France with the opposition Socialists split on whether to support it or not, is to also to be put to a referendum.

However, an actual referendum on Turkey is likely to be a long way off as Turkey is not expected to join the European Union until around 2015.

The next round of enlargement will be in 2007 with Bulgarian and Romania set to join the EU.

After them Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia and Serbia and Montenegro and are lining up to join.