(SOFIA) - Bulgaria is backing Turkey's bid to join the European Union, Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev said Thursday, according to a statement from his office.

"EU member Bulgaria supports all countries in the region, including Turkey, in their EU membership bids," the statement quoted Stanishev as saying during one-on-one talks with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

But Erdogan also said that Turkey expected "that the European Union would remain faithful to the engagements undertaken towards Turkey," the statement added.

Turkey started negotiations to join the bloc in 2005, but a year later Brussels froze talks on eight of the 35 policy fields that candidates must complete before accession, over a disagreement on Cyprus.

France and Germany have proposed a "privileged partnership" instead of full membership to the Muslim state, a compromise already rejected by Erdogan who warned the European Union not to become a "club of Christians."

Erdogan arrived Thursday on a two-day official visit to Bulgaria, where he was scheduled to meet President Georgy Parvanov and the leaders of the coalition partners in government, former king Simeon Saxe Coburg and Turkish-minority party leader Ahmed Dogan.

He was also to open a complex of glass plants belonging to Turkish glass giant Sisecam in the northeastern town of Targovishte later Thursday and visit the southern region of Kardzhali Friday.

The two premiers cancelled a joint press conference Thursday morning amid ultra-nationalist protests over Erdogan's planned visits to the two regions, which have strong Turkish minorities and are home to separatist movements.

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