Brussels, 13/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - Javier Solana has welcomed the appointment on Tuesday of the leader of the AKP Party, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to the head of the Turkish government. The High Representative of the EU for Foreign Policy "strongly hopes that the Turkish government will continue relentlessly in the task of making all the necessary efforts to work constructively with the European Union, on all issues of common concern". Recep Tayyip Erdogan was elected to the government on Sunday, after the Parliament lifted his ineligibility. He replaces Abdullah Gül, who had occupied the post since the elections which took the moderate Islamic party to power.