Rival Cypriot leaders meet in bid to revive peace push

Rival Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot leaders gathered for rare face-to-face talks on Wednesday, raising hopes of a revival of the flagging UN process to reunite the divided island.

The meeting between Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat on neutral ground in the UN-patrolled buffer zone is aimed at making progress towards ending 33 years of partition.

When they last met on July 8, 2006, the two agreed a twin-track process to pave the way for peace talks in what the United Nations hailed as a "historic" breakthrough.

But the agreement has been gathering dust ever since, and Talat warned recently that the eastern Mediterranean island risked permanent partition.

Papadopoulos, head of the island's internationally recognised government, said on Tuesday that a resolution of the Cyprus problem "remains our first and most urgent priority".

"Our purpose is to break through the deadlock and expeditiously move forward with the implementation of the July 8 process," he said.

Diplomats say the fact the two will meet in the same room for only the second time since 2004 is significant.

"The absence of dialogue on Cyprus has been extremely damaging," a European diplomat told AFP. "The meeting has to be welcomed in the hope it will lead to real progress -- it provides an opportunity to improve the climate."

Wednesday's meeting was being held at the Nicosia residence of UN mission chief Michael Moeller, whose only comment on the eve of the talks was "I am always optimistic."

Talat, whose breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is recognised only by Ankara, told Turkey's Anatolia news agency on Sunday he hoped there would be a positive outcome.

But he also warned there was "no question of giving way on the fundamental principles of political equality for the Turkish Cypriots and Turkey continuing as a guarantor power on the island."

Former colonial power Britain, which has expressed frustration with the deadlock on the island since Greek Cypriots voted down a UN reunification plan in 2004, welcomed the new talks but said both sides needed to enter them seriously.

"We very much hope that those talks will be entered into with real openness and determination on both sides," Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on a visit to Ankara.

Analysts were wary of raising expectations, and said the price of failure could set the peace process back indefinitely as the world grows ever weary of an issue seemingly resistant to resolution.

"The consequences of failure at the meeting or in the coming months will only impact on the two communities and the island generally," said Tim Potier, assistant professor on international law and human rights at Cyprus's Intercollege.

"It's better for expectations to be lowered and the front door left open for further discussions," he told AFP.

Cyprus has been divided since Turkish troops invaded the island's northern third in 1974 following a Greek Cypriot coup backed by the military junta in Athens aimed at union with Greece.

And with little movement on the issue for more than three years, fears have been raised that permanent division is the only workable solution.

Talat said public opinion in the north had hardened since the 2004 referendum in which Turkish Cypriots backed reunification by a wide margin while Greek Cypriots overwhelmingly opposed it.

"The division is deepening. There are opinion polls which indicate that the majority of Turkish Cypriots are in favour of the two-state solution: permanent partition," Talat told Britain's Daily Telegraph last month.

Among Greek Cypriots, Euro MP Marios Matsakis caused a furore last week when he dared to suggest that for his community too partition was the best way forward.

The maverick politician was lambasted for arguing that a two-state solution was preferable to a Cyprus settlement -- based on a loosely-tied federation -- as envisaged in the UN blueprint Greek Cypriots rejected three years ago.