2nd LD Writethru: Cyprus reunification negotiating session ends in deadlock

A make or break negotiating session between the leaders of the Turkish and Greek communities on ending the division of their partitioned island ended in deadlock, Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said Wednesday.

"We have made a concrete, creative proposal which could lead us into a substantive dialogue and to the solution of the Cyprus problem, but there has been a disagreement," Anastasiades said after a five-hour meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci.

He added that UN Secretary-General's special adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide will explore in the coming hours whether there were prospects for another meeting that would lead to results.

Aleem Siddique, the UN spokesman in Cyprus, indicated to Xinhua that Eide's shuttle diplomacy between the two sides will not last more than 24 hours, as he is scheduled to leave Cyprus on Thursday.

Anastasiades was pressed to talk about his proposal but he said he will do that only after Eide will have completed his runs.

The Cypriot President gave a tint of finality to the disruption of the two-year negotiating process by saying that after Eide completes his consultations he will convene the National Council, an advisory body made up of parliamentary party leaders and past president, to brief them on his proposal and on what has been done up to now.

Anastasiades also said that he discussed with Akinci whether it would be helpful to reconvene an international conference on Cyprus that ended in failure in Geneva last November.

Akinci said he has made some suggestions during today's meeting, but none of his suggestions were accepted by Anastasiades because his view was that this had also been tried in the past without success.

The Turkish Cypriot leader also said the proposals made by Anastasiades at the meeting were not constructive at all but were rather conditions to attending a Geneva conference.

UN Secretary General said at a news conference in Strasbourg on Wednesday that he was ready to facilitate another Geneva conference if both Cyprus leaders felt that it would be a positive step.

Eide has hinted in recent statements that the Cyprus negotiations have a de facto time limit as international energy companies have scheduled drilling this summer in Cyprus's exclusive economic zone in search for hydrocarbons.

In an ominous remark, Akinci said that the present tension in the area could escalate once drilling started.

Turkey, which opposes drilling done on concessions accorded by the internationally recognized all-Greek government of Cyprus, has already sent a seismic data ship into Cypriot territorial waters and has given a veiled warning that warships will be sent in the region when drilling starts.

One of the stumbling blocks in the way of a solution is Turkey's insistence to maintain in Cyprus part of its troops which it sent to occupy the island's northern part in 1974, in reaction to a coup by the military rulers of Greece at the time. Endit