Cyprus leader sees no speedy solution to division

(ANKARA) - Cypriot President Demetris Christofias has said he sees no breakthrough soon in talks to end Cyprus' 35-year division, in an interview published Tuesday.

"I do not see a solution being possible by or before December," Christofias told Turkey's English-language Today's Zaman daily.

"If we move forward as we are moving now... it will be dufficult to find a solution even before April."

The Turkish Cypriots, backed by Turkey, have called for a settlement by year's end or early 2010 and demanded that the talks be tied to a timetable.

December is critical for Turkey because of a European Union summit at which leaders are expected to discuss how to respond to Ankara's refusal to grant trade privileges to the Greek Cypriots under a deal with the bloc.

And April is important due to presidential elections in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot statelet, which may see pro-settlement leader Mehmet Ali Talat lose office.

UN-brokered talks between Talat and Chsistofias began in September 2008, but progress has been slow and the two sides remain divided on key issues.

The Turkish Cypriots and Ankara worry the Greek Cypriots are deliberately protracting the talks and accuse them of impeding progress in Turkey's EU accession bid in order to extract concessions on the Cyprus conflict.

Turkey refuses to allow Greek Cypriots to use its air and sea ports under a customs union accord with the EU, insisting the bloc should fulfill promises to ease the international isolation of the Turkish Cypriots.

The EU has already punished Ankara by freezing accession talks in eight of the 35 policy areas that candidates must complete.

Asked whether the Greek Cypriots would seek more sanctions against Turkey at the December summit, Christofias said: "Everything is open. Everything is possible."

In 2004, the Greek Cypriots voted down a UN-drafted reunification plan, while the Turkish Cypriots gave it overwhelming support.

Turkey is bitter that the Greek Cypriots, whose government is the island's internationally recognised administration, were admitted into the EU that year despite rejecting the settlement, while the Turkish Cypriots were left out in the cold.

Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkey occupied the north in response to an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia aimed at uniting the island with Greece.