CYPRUS: Cypriot President Mr Tassos Papadopoulos is likely to say today whether he backs a UN plan to reunify the island before it joins the European Union on May 1st, aides said yesterday.
Mr Papadopoulos is seen as cool to the latest UN plan, which will be put to a referendum on April 24th, but newspapers speculated yesterday his rejection was a foregone conclusion. He is expected to give his view in a planned speech today.
Greek Cypriots appear opposed to the plan but many look to the president and political parties for guidance on how to vote.
The Communist AKEL, the largest Greek Cypriot party backing Mr Papadopoulos in his coalition government, has put off taking a stand until next week.
The Mediterranean island has been split into Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities since Turkey invaded in 1974 after a Greek Cypriot coup backed by a military junta ruling Greece.
An estimated 600,000 people in the Greek Cypriot south and Turkish Cypriot north can vote in the referendums, which will be held separately for the two communities.
The failure of the two sides to reach agreement forced UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan to submit a fifth and final version of a power-sharing plan last week, a document under discussion for more than a year. It would reunite Cyprus as a loose federation of two largely self-governing regions, one predominantly ethnically Turkish Cypriot and the other Greek Cypriot.