VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Turkey "will never be ready" for the European Union, the leader of one of Austria's two main rightist political parties insisted Saturday, warning against taking in the mostly Muslim nation.

Peter Westenthaler, who heads the Alliance for the Future of Austria -- founded last year by Joerg Haider, the former leader of the extreme-right Freedom Party -- said in a statement that the best the 25-nation EU can do is offer Turkey alternatives to full membership.

Negotiations on Turkey's eventual entry are under way, although the country is not expected to join for at least a decade. Opposition to its drive for membership runs high in Austria, home to about 200,000 Turks -- Europe's third-largest Turkish expatriate population after Germany and France.

"Politically, economically and technically, Turkey's entry would make excessive demands of the EU," said Westenthaler, whose party won 4.2 percent of the vote in national elections in Austria last weekend -- just enough for it to enter parliament.

"Turkey is not ready for Europe and it will never be," he declared.

Westenthaler, whose party is considered somewhat more moderate than the anti-Islamic Freedom Party, also criticized European Commission vice president Guenter Verheugen for supporting Turkey's eventual entry.

"If Verheugen calls Turkey's full membership in the EU a goal, then that is a warning that the political caste in Brussels has departed completely from the desires and concepts of the European population," Westenthaler said.

VIENNA, Austria Turkey "will never be ready" for the European Union, the leader of one of Austria's two main rightist political parties insisted Saturday, warning against taking in the mostly Muslim nation.

Peter Westenthaler, who heads the Alliance for the Future of Austria -- founded last year by Joerg Haider, the former leader of the extreme-right Freedom Party -- said in a statement that the best the 25-nation EU can do is offer Turkey alternatives to full membership.

Negotiations on Turkey's eventual entry are under way, although the country is not expected to join for at least a decade. Opposition to its drive for membership runs high in Austria, home to about 200,000 Turks -- Europe's third-largest Turkish expatriate population after Germany and France.

"Politically, economically and technically, Turkey's entry would make excessive demands of the EU," said Westenthaler, whose party won 4.2 percent of the vote in national elections in Austria last weekend -- just enough for it to enter parliament.

"Turkey is not ready for Europe and it will never be," he declared.

Westenthaler, whose party is considered somewhat more moderate than the anti-Islamic Freedom Party, also criticized European Commission vice president Guenter Verheugen for supporting Turkey's eventual entry.

"If Verheugen calls Turkey's full membership in the EU a goal, then that is a warning that the political caste in Brussels has departed completely from the desires and concepts of the European population," Westenthaler said.