NICOSIA (AFP) — Rival Cypriot leaders met on Friday aiming to set a date for peace talks to end the island's 34-year-old divide, with the Turkish Cypriots hoping for a deal by the end of this year.
President Demetris Christofias, a Greek Cypriot, and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat met at the UN-controlled Nicosia airport in the buffer zone amid hopes both sides will announce a September start for full peace talks.
On Thursday Talat said he wanted intensive negotiations.
"Our objective is to reach a settlement in a short time... I believe we can make it by the end of 2008," he told Turkey's Anatolia news agency.
"Starting from September, we have four months... This much time is sufficient. It can be extended a little bit if necessary, but resolving the Cyprus question in a short time must be our primary objective."
The international community remained cautious ahead of Friday's meeting, but the United States and Britain have both boosted diplomatic links with the two sides.
The lack of a Cyprus settlement is viewed as a major stumbling block to Turkey's European Union ambitions.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wants direct negotiations to start soon, and he has named Australia's former foreign minister Alexander Downer as his special envoy for Cyprus.
Downer, 56, is expected to be present if a renewed peace initiative is launched in earnest.
An agreement between Christofias and Talat, both regarded by the international community as "pro-settlement," is seen as the best chance for peace since a failed UN reunification blueprint in April 2004.
On July 1 they agreed in principle on single citizenship and sovereignty in a reunified island and vowed to meet on July 25 for a "final review" of preparatory negotiations before launching peace talks proper.
Christofias has warned against outside pressure for a quick-fix settlement, saying it would only backfire, and has refused to accept deadlines or restrictive time frames.
He was elected president in February on a platform of reviving reunification talks which went nowhere under his hardline predecessor Tassos Papadopoulos.
Initial euphoria at the prospects of a settlement dampened as both sides found the going sluggish at the committee level over the sensitive issues of property, territory, sovereignty and security.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops occupied its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup seeking enosis, or union with Greece.
Thousands of Greek Cypriots living in the north fled south and Turkish Cypriots fled north, with both communities abandoning property.
Displaced Greek Cypriots outnumbered Turkish Cypriots by about four to one -- roughly the same proportion as the 1974 population.
The Turkish Cypriots nationalised Greek Cypriot land and property and most of it was distributed to Turkish Cypriots displaced from the south and to settlers from Turkey.
The two leaders reached a landmark agreement on March 21 to begin fully fledged peace talks after four years of virtual stalemate following the 2004 rejection of a UN peace plan by the Greek Cypriots.
They met again in May and decided to review progress made by the technical committees.
The Greek Cypriots say real progress at the committee stage must be achieved if face-to-face talks are to have any chance of success, while the Turkish Cypriots say any difficulties can be resolved at the negotiating table.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
