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Turkey will not make new demands at EU refugee summit: Senior official

The official also revealed a visit by European Council President Donald Tusk to Ankara recently had not fully resolved issues over the deal.

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Turkey does not intend to make new demands at a meeting with EU leaders on the refugee crisis and sees the chances of finalising a deal as difficult but not impossible, a senior Turkish official said on Thursday.

Should there be new proposals from the European side, Turkey would discuss them, the official said, adding that countries including Cyprus should not be allowed to block progress. The official also said a visit by European Council President Donald Tusk to Ankara earlier in the week had not fully resolved issues over the deal. 

On Thursday, leaders of the European Union meet in Brussels to agree on a deal to offer Turkey the following day that would secure Ankara's commitment to a scheme intended to halt refugee flows to the Greek islands.

A year into a crisis in which more than a million people have arrived in chaotic misery, many of them Syrian war refugees and most of whom come from Turkey via Greece to Germany via dangerous sea crossings and long treks, hopes have risen around the summit table that they may have found a way to at least slow the movement.

But leaders acknowledge there is no silver bullet and face many obstacles over the next two days, from howls of outrage that they plan mass expulsions of vulnerable people to a country with a patchy and worsening human rights record, to a lingering feud between Ankara and small but vocal EU member Cyprus.

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