PARIS — President Sarkozy, softening his opposition to Turkish accession to the European Union, said for the first time he’d be willing to discuss terms for the nation’s membership in the 27-nation bloc.

Mr. Sarkozy said his agreement to negotiations would require the European Union to establish a panel of “wise men” by the end of the year to study the future of Europe.

“If the 27 undertake this crucial discussion about the future of our union, France won’t object to opening new chapters in negotiations between the union and Turkey in coming months and years, provided these chapters are compatible with both possible visions of the future of relations: either accession or very close association,” Mr. Sarkozy said in a speech yesterday in Paris.

Mr. Sarkozy, who was elected on May 6, made opposition to Turkish entry into the European Union a key foreign-policy plank during his campaign, saying the mainly Muslim nation of 72 million people, where living standards are about a third of the E.U. average, is in Asia. In June, France blocked the start of E.U. talks with Turkey on economic and monetary affairs.

Recalling that he backed the option of closer association, Mr. Sarkozy said, “I have not changed my mind and I think it will one day be recognized by everyone as the more reasonable one.”

A spokesman for the European Commission, Amadeu Altafaj, declined comment on Mr. Sarkozy’s proposal at a briefing yesterday in Brussels. A spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Levent Bilman, wasn’t immediately available to comment.

“The fact that he said today that there are in fact two possibilities, two options, is already a move forward,” Bahadir Kaleagasi, the Brussels representative of Tusiad, the Turkish Business Association, said in a telephone interview. “He comes up with more pragmatism but he says he hasn’t changed his mind.”

The speech, to an annual gathering of French ambassadors, was Mr. Sarkozy’s first attempt to outline his foreign policy since he succeeded Jacques Chirac in May. Building a “strong and active Europe” is the “absolute priority in our foreign policy, and the E.U. should set out a new “European Security Strategy” next year, he said.

Mr. Sarkozy said he’d seek talks with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization to craft a deeper role for France in trans-Atlantic affairs, improving ties with the American government that were frayed by Mr. Chirac’s opposition to the American-led invasion of Iraq.

He called himself a “friend of Israel,” said he opposed a radical Hamas-led state in the Gaza Strip, and called Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons “unacceptable.” France backs “increasing sanctions but also openness if Iran chooses to honor its obligations,” Mr. Sarkozy said. This aims to avert “a disastrous alternative: an Iranian bomb or bombing Iran,” he said.

“Preventing a confrontation between Islam and the West also involves helping, as France is proposing, Muslim countries to gain access to the energy of the future, nuclear power, in compliance with the treaties,” Mr. Sarkozy said.

The French president said he’d expand French training for the Afghan army in its fight against the Taliban. Still, he backed a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq and called on the American government to show leadership in protecting the environment.

“The U.S.-French friendship is as important today as it’s been the past two centuries,” he said. “Being allied doesn’t mean being aligned, and I feel entirely free to express our agreements and disagreements and candidly.”

On Russia and China, he criticized Russia for what he termed the “brutal” use of its oil and gas assets in diplomacy. And he said China was using its currency as a foreign policy tool.

The French president also backed broadening the U.N. Security Council’s permanent membership and expanding the Group of Eight industrial nations that set global economy policy to include China, India, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa.

Emerging giants such as China, India, and Brazil “are driving world growth and also serious imbalances,” Mr. Sarkozy said. They “want their new status to be recognized without always being willing to comply with the rules.”