Roundup: It takes time to publicly present reunification plan: Cypriot president

It will take time before a solution to reunite the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus is put before the public for approval, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said on Thursday.

Anastasiades was briefing a special session of the parliament which was being televised live, after more than eight months of negotiations with Turkish leader Mustafa Akinci on a plan to end more than four decades of conflict.

Anastasiades gave a detailed account of the talks, saying there has been progress on several important chapters but also divergences on other core issues which held back the conclusion of an agreement in the UN-led negotiations.

He said there had been extensive concurrence on how to deal with the thorny issue of properties left behind by people who were forced out of the homes and lands in the wake of Turkish military action in 1974.

Turkey occupied the northern part of Cyprus in two phases of fighting in July and August 1974, in reaction to a coup organized by the military rulers of Greece at the time.

Anastasiades said there was agreement on the main criteria for handling mostly Greek Cypriot properties now occupied by Turkish Cypriots or mainland Turkish settlers. He added a much lesser extent of Turkish Cypriot properties were administered by the government on behalf of their owners.

But he said there were still some details to be agreed on in relation to occupied territory to be returned to the Greek Cypriot constituent state of a future Cyprus Federation.

Anastasiades said that extensive agreement had also been recorded on government power-sharing plans and relations of Cyprus with the European Union.

But he said Turkish Cypriots, who make up about one-fifth of the population, insisted on a rotating presidency, "a demand which is not acceptable to the Greek Cypriot side."

"As a result of this disagreement, there are divergences as to the composition of the Council of Ministers," said Anastasiades.

He said a list of 27 categories of federal powers had been prepared, adding there was agreement on 19 points, minor differences on five and outright disagreement on three other points.

Anastasiades also said the Greek Cypriot side would never accept the continuation of a system of guarantees by Britain, Greece and Turkey, which was set up when colonial Britain accorded independence to Cyprus in 1960.

Espen Barth Eide, who is acting as facilitator of the negotiations on behalf of the UN Secretary General, touched upon the issue of guarantees in an interview with state television on Wednesday, saying an alternative system of security must be devised.

Anastasiades said agreement leading to a solution of the Cyprus problem could be reached by the end of this year.

But he warned he would not put before the Greek Cypriots a proposed solution which he feels does not address their security concerns. Endit