1st LD Writethru: Cypriot president says ready to continue failed reunification negotiations

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades on Wednesday said he is resolute and ready to continue the failed negotiations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots for the reunification of the eastern Mediterranean island.

"I am ready to continue the dialogue from the point it was left at Mont Pelerin and even intensify the negotiations to achieve the desired outcome," Anastasiades told a night-time televised press conference.

He was responding to a call by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to resume negotiations.

Anastasiades, in his capacity as representative of the Greek Cypriots, and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci recessed their United Nations-led negotiations in Switzerland on Monday, after they failed to bridge their differences on territorial adjustments.

An agreement on the issue would lead to the last stage of the negotiations to reunify Cyprus, which was partitioned when Turkey occupied about 37 percent of the island's territory in a 1974 military action spurred by a coup organized by the then military rulers of Greece.

Earlier on Wednesday, Ban, who had declared open the negotiations at Mont Pelerin, urged both Cypriot leaders "to do their utmost to overcome this particular hurdle and conclude the promising work that they had undertaken in Mont Pelerin."

In 18 months of negotiations, Anastasiades and Akinci made remarkable progress and reached the penultimate step before an agreement.

But against all expectations, the latest round of negotiations hit a roadblock as they failed to agree on the number of displaced Greek Cypriots to return to areas that will be given up by the Turkish side. Endit