CYPRUS: Talks to unify Cyprus before its May 1st entry into the European Union entered their second day yesterday, left hanging by a thread after both Greek and Turkish Cypriots balked at conditions set by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, diplomats said.
The negotiations were extended after an initial round of meetings broke off on Tuesday evening without the quick agreement sought by Mr Annan on ground rules for later technical talks in Cyprus on the fine print of a reunification deal.
The UN Secretary-General wants Cypriot president Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash to accept a previously drafted UN blueprint as the basis for their work, and he wants the talks wrapped up by late March.
At that point, he would fill in any blanks in a peace deal that would then be put to a vote in the Turkish Cypriot north and Greek Cypriot south in separate referendums on April 21th.
But in Tuesday's talks, both resisted Annan's demand that he be allowed to set terms on points on which the parties had not reached agreement, diplomats close to the talks said.
"Both sides behaved badly," one diplomat said. "Denktash is very critical of the whole thing and no one seems to be reining him in, while Papadopoulos doesn't seem too interested in making progress.
"The hope is that overnight, having gotten it out of their system, they will now be ready to sit down and work things out," the diplomat said.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when troops from Turkey occupied the north of the island in response to a coup in Nicosia engineered by the junta then ruling Greece.
Turkey alone recognises Denktash's statelet in the north and bases some 30,000 troops there, while the Greek Cypriot government, with fewer than 5,000 Greek troops on its soil, is widely recognised internationally and will enter the European Union with or without a reunification deal.
Diplomats have billed the high-stakes talks as the final chance for an end to three decades of division on the Mediterranean island as the Greek Cypriot government in the south prepares for EU membership in May.
Turkey, fearful that failure to reach an agreement will damage its own hopes of entering the EU, has put heavy pressure on Denktash - who was widely blamed for the collapse of an earlier round of talks last March - to reach a deal.
The EU and the US have also pushed hard for an agreement. But Denktash has strong support from Turkish nationalists.
Opposition parties, appealing to Turkish nationalist sentiment ahead of local elections next month, have accused Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan of preparing to "betray" the Turkish Cypriots to save Ankara's EU candidacy.