Vienna (AFP) -- It is for the European Union alone to decide whether to make Turkey a member of the bloc, Austria's foreign minister said Tuesday, a day after Barack Obama publicly backed Ankara's bid.

"It's not new. The Bush administration also tried to convince us," said Michael Spindelegger after the US president's remarks during a speech to the Turkish parliament.

"But it is clear that the European Union and its member states will alone decide," he told the Austrian public station Radio Oe1.

"The question is to know if Turkey is changing its position."

Turkey began EU accession talks in 2005 after a series of democratic reforms, but progress has been slow.

Ankara has so far opened talks in fewer than half of the 35 policy areas on which candidates must successfully negotiate.

Sticking points include a trade row over Cyprus, which it does not recognise, and the opposition of Austria, France and some members of the German government to its accession.

Spindelegger's comments came as France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner dismissed Obama's comments during an interview with RTL radio Tuesday.

"It's not for the Americans to decide who comes into Europe or not," Kouchner retorted. "We are in charge in our own house."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday that the issue of Turkey's negotiations with the UE was still to be determined.

"In which manner and way that occurs, whether as a privileged partnership or a full (EU) member state, we're still talking about that," she said.

Obama also defended Turkey's case for EU membership while attending the European Union summit Sunday in Prague on Sunday.

If Turkey were to be admitted to the EU it would become the Union's biggest member in terms of population, and its first with a Muslim majority.