Brussels, 14/11/2002 (Agence Europe) - The leader of the party in command in Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan received Javier Solana in Ankara on Thursday having begun a European round in Rome on Wednesday. His difficult goal is to try to convince the Fifteen to set, at the Copenhagen Summit, a date for the beginning of Turkey's accession negotiations with the European Union. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to go in the coming days to Athens, Madrid and Brussels, and end-November to Copenhagen. The AKP leader, who cannot become prime minister as he was declared ineligible for having read out a poem in public regarded as "Islamic", continues to multiply his declarations in favour of his commitment to Europe and to democracy. He declared in Rome that Turkey's accession to the European Union would be the best way of showing the other Muslim countries "that democracy and Islam can co-exist". He said that Silvio Berlusconi had undertaken to do all he could for "Turkey's hopes not to be disappointed at the Copenhagen Summit". Berlusconi declared that Italy was Turkey's "best friend".