Cypriot community leaders express readiness to meet to talk about peace

NICOSIA, March 2 (Xinhua) -- The leaders of the estranged Greek and Turkish communities of Cyprus are willing to meet soon to talk about the prospects of establishing peace on the eastern Mediterranean island, they said separately on Friday.

A spokesman for Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, who represents the Greek community, said he conveyed through the UN Secretary General's special representative in Cyprus, Elizabeth Spehar his wish to have a social meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci.

"The president reiterated to Spehar his readiness to meet with Mr Akinci, as they have a face-to-face conversation to have at some point, if the process is to resume," said spokesman Prodromos Prodromou.

Akinci said during a televised press conference that he was eager to meet Anastasiades to talk about the resumption of peace negotiations.

Negotiations between Anastasiades and Akinci collapsed in acrimony during a UN sponsored conference last July.

The two sides are currently at odds over a natural gas exploration program by the Cypriot government.

Turkey, which occupied part of Cyprus in reaction to a 1974 coup engineered by the military rulers of Greece at the time, blocked a drillship from reaching its target to start a deep-sea hole at the start of last month, saying it did so to defend Turkish Cypriot rights and interests.

Akinci insisted that as part of confidence building measures a joint committee should be set up to manage the exploration program but he stopped short of making this a precondition for renewed negotiations.

Both Anastasiades and Akinci met on Friday with visiting UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix to review the progress of a strategic reorganization of UNFICYP, a blue beret army which serves in Cyprus since 1964.

Lacroix said the talks centered on UNFICYP.

The government spokesman said Anastasiades took the opportunity of Spehar's presence at the meetings to have a discussion of the future of the peace process.

"The President said that he had the will (to talk) and will be waiting to listen to the (reply) messages of the other side," his spokesman said. Enditem