BERLIN (AFP) -- Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan reproached Germany for failing to do more to advance his country's hopes of joining the European Union.

"Seriously, I expected more from Germany", which currently holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU, he told German magazine Der Spiegel. He proposed 2014 or 2015 as a possible date for membership.

But if the EU "doesn't want us, it should say so clearly now. If we are not wanted, the two sides need not continue wasting their time in talks", he said.

Public opinion in Germany, the EU's most populous country which has 2.5 million Turkish residents, is generally against Turkish membership.

However, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a social democrat, supports full membership.

"If we really trust Turkey, that will improve security and stability in Europe," he told the Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung regional newspaper.