CYPRUS: The second phase of intensive UN-brokered negotiations aimed at reunifying Cyprus gets underway today at the luxury Palace Park Hotel overlooking Lake Lucerne. Expectations of an agreement are low.
During the first phase, which took place in Nicosia from February 19th until last Monday, no substantive progress was made in bilateral talks between the leaders of the two communities.
The UN mediator, Mr Alvaro de Soto, characterised this round as "the endgame" and expressed the hope that an agreement would be reached by the March 31st deadline so that a united Cyprus, divided since Turkey occupied the north in 1974, can enter the European Union on May 1st.
The Greek Cypriots, represented by the Cyprus president, Mr Tassos Papadopoulos, and the Turkish Cypriots by the prime minister, Mr Mehmet Ali Talat, and the Turkish Cypriot foreign minister, Mr Sardar Denktash, will be joined here today by the Greek and Turkish foreign ministers and at the weekend by the prime ministers of the two "motherlands" and the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan.
The veteran Turkish Cypriot leader, Mr Rauf Denktash, refused to attend. He rejects the framework for a Swiss-style federation put forward by Mr Annan.
Mr Papadopoulos, who insists that the new state should be functional and viable, has come under fire from the UN and some western diplomats for failing to promote the Annan plan amongst Greek Cypriots and to rein in politicians from his own centre-right Democratic party who have launched a "no" campaign.
Negative publicity generated by the deadlocked Nicosia round, has increased the number of Greek Cypriots rejecting the plan from 61 to 75 per cent.