Cyprus president ill, to skip EU summit

(NICOSIA) - Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades was hospitalised in Brussels with high blood pressure Thursday and asked Greece's premier to stand in for him at an EU summit, the government said.

"After prolonged nosebleeds the president... was admitted early in the morning to a hospital in Brussels where it was found that the incident is due to high blood pressure," an official statement said.

The 68-year-old Greek Cypriot leader was discharged several hours later after receiving treatment and told to stay at his hotel to be closely monitored by a doctor, government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said.

But Thursday afternoon he was admitted to Brussels' ear, nose and throat hospital, where he was given specific treatment, Christodoulides said without elaborating.

"The president is in good health, and for purely precautionary reasons he chose to remain in the hospital overnight," he added in a statement.

Following the morning announcement, the spokesman said Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras would represent Anastasiades at the summit and "analyse the positions of the Republic of Cyprus."

The president confirmed the arrangement in a message on his Twitter account.

Anastasiades had been expected to condemn the entry of a Turkish survey ship into Cyprus's exclusive economic zone, where Nicosia has licensed multinational firms to explore for energy reserves.

In reaction to the Turkish incursion, EU member Cyprus said it will block any new opening of chapters of Ankara's own European Union accession process.

Anastasiades recently suspended UN-brokered peace talks with the Turkish Cypriots on the divided island after Ankara announced it was going to search for gas and oil inside Cypriot waters.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded the island and seized its northern third in reaction to an Athens-inspired coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.

Conservative Anastasiades was elected in February 2013, only days before Cyprus had to negotiate a painful 10 billion euro ($12.7 billion) bailout with international lenders.

He is credited with having steered the country from near-bankruptcy and ensuring the economy did not suffer a double-digit recession as feared.