Frankrijk verwelkomt leider Turkmenistan in november (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The president of Turkmenistan is likely to make a state visit to France in November amid EU efforts to build relations with one of the world's most closed regimes.

"Both sides have accepted in principle. We are now working around the hypothesis of November, but it is still subject to change," a source close to the dossier told EUobserver.

French minister for foreign trade Anne-Marie Idrac in March in Ashgabat hand-delivered a letter of invitation from French President Nicolas Sarkozy i to Turkmenistan's leader, Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.

"You can visit France this autumn if it is convenient for you. It will suit us to give additional impulse to the strengthening of our relations," the letter said, according to Turkmen state media.

NGOs such as the Open Society Institute and Human Rights Watch put Turkmenistan on a par with Burma and North Korea as being a "black hole" of human rights abuses and corruption.

But the EU is keen to help Mr Berdymukhammedov extract the country from Russian domination and to sell natural gas directly to Europe.

"Not many people pay attention to Turkmenistan. But it is a key country in terms of both geopolitcs and energy security," an EU official said.

Mr Berdymukhammedov visited Europe for the first time last year.

The 52-year old former dentist and health minister brought a 140-strong delegation to Berlin in November and also dropped in to Munich and Vienna. But he declined to attend an EU energy summit in Prague in May.

The European Commission is keen to finalise a Partnership and Co-operation Agreement with Turkmenistan in the first half of 2010, putting political relations on a firm legal footing and multiplying the number of regular diplomatic meetings.

France, the UK and the European Parliament are the only EU entities which have not yet ratified the pact.

The EU executive expects the French parliament to approve the agreement by the end of October and the UK to wrap up ratification by the end of the year.

But the European Parliament could prove to be a tougher obstacle, with MEPs historically inclined to take the NGO line and push for human rights benchmarks in any new accord.

EU states in July approved a basic trade pact with Turkmenistan after MEPs unfroze the process following 11 years of debate.