Holbrooke fails to get talks restarted as Denktash insists on recognition as a state

The US presidential envoy, Mr Richard Holbrooke, has spent two days shuttling between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders without securing a resumption of UN-sponsored inter-communal negotiations aimed at reuniting the island in a bicommunal, bizonal federation.

When Mr Holbrooke crossed into the Turkish Cypriot side of Nicosia early on Saturday he was greeted at the border post by a newly fixed billboard asserting: "Turkish State of North Cyprus Forever".

Then the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mr Rauf Denktash, dismissed as "irrelevant" Mr Holbrooke's declaration that the US, UN and Europe "cannot recognise the Turkish republic of northern Cyprus", recognised only by Ankara.

Mr Denktash, who has demanded recognition as a precondition for re-entering negotiations, insisted: "We exist, and we are going to exist . . . If you want Cyprus to be united, two states are ready to unite. If not, let Cyprus be divided."

He had remarked several days earlier that "partition" was at hand. The Cyprus government "had no legal or moral right to be our government", he stated. He rejected the resumption of talks on an inter-communal basis and demanded talks between the two "existing states" on the island, a demand rejected by the Greek Cypriots and the UN.

Mr Holbrooke, the former negotiator of the Bosnian peace accords, sat next to Mr Denktash during this outburst. He looked grim and said nothing. Following three other meetings with Mr Holbrooke, Mr Denktash maintained silence on substantive issues, remarking only that Mr Holbrooke, who departs today, would return next weekend to continue his shuttle "if he is invited by both sides".

The US envoy's talks with the Greek Cypriot side were more relaxed and cheerful although Mr Holbrooke's aim was to persuade President Glafkos Clerides to suspend a deal with Russia for the purchase of a S-300 missile system, due to be deployed in August.

Ankara has threatened to "take out" the missiles. This would be likely to precipitate a war with Greece, which has pledged to defend the island republic.

It is in order to avert a devastating conflict between these two NATO allies that the US has become seriously engaged in the Cyprus peace process, deadlocked for 20 years. Before Mr Holbrooke's arrival in Cyprus, the US State Department's co-ordinator, Mr Thomas Miller, held discussions in Ankara, Athens and Nicosia and the US Secretary of State, Mrs Madeleine Albright, asked the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany to adopt a positive attitude to Ankara's entry into the EU.

This followed the EU's rejection last December of Turkish accession during the first and second rounds of expansion.

Following this rebuff, Turkey adopted a hostile attitude towards the EU and encouraged Mr Denktash to take a hard line towards the resumption of talks with the Greek Cypriots ahead of Cypriot accession talks which began on March 31st.