Roundup: 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.

Anastasiades said the talks failed because Akinci backtracked on an agreement on how many Greek Cypriots would return to their homes in the areas to be evacuated by Turkish troops.

He said they agreed that the Turkish Cypriot side would keep under its control between 28.2 and 29.2 percent of the territory of the island despite the fact that they made up only 22 percent of the population.

He added that based on that agreement, United Nations technocrats decided that this would allow between 78,000 and 94,000 displaced Greek Cypriots, out of a total of 170,000, to return to their homes.

But Akinci, according to Anastasiades, did not accept these figures and insisted that in the best case only a maximum of 65,000 Greek Cypriots should return.

Anastasiades said that despite the deep disappointment he felt, he was ready to make whatever moves are required to restart the negotiations as soon as possible.

"To the extent it is up to me, I'll not allow hope to be lost," he said.

UN Secretary-General's special adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide, who brokers the negotiations, gave notice that he will be back in Cyprus early next week, saying that "the game is not over yet." Endit