Turkish PM backs new Cyprus talks

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spoken out in favour of resuming talks on a UN peace plan to end the 29-year-old division of Cyprus.
Mr Erdogan said it was wrong to totally reject, or to totally accept the plan.

He suggested that the Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash should change his advisers to get a fresh outlook.

Mr Denktash said he "regretted" these remarks and repeated his view that the UN plan can never be made acceptable to Turkish Cypriots.

"It seems apparent that the prime minister desires a change in the negotiator and advisers," Mr Denktash said.

"The Turkish Government should say who they prefer to become the negotiator so I can appoint one. Let's see how far it can take us."

The row follows elections in northern Cyprus last weekend, in which parties supporting the UN plan and others opposing it won an equal number of parliamentary seats.

The leader of the main opposition party, Mehmet Ali Talat, is trying to put together a coalition.

Mr Talat says he wants Mr Denktash replaced as the chief negotiator and hopes to resume talks as soon as possible.


His ability to do so depends on the support of Turkey, which is the only state to recognise the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus - and its financial sponsor.

Mr Erdogan favours a formula which would allow Mr Denktash to stay on as chief negotiator, even though he wants the negotiations to be based on the UN plan.


Mr Denktash rejects this approach, and says he is preparing a new plan.

International pressure

In a sign of mounting international pressure after the elections, the UN Security Council and a visiting US envoy called on Thursday for the immediate resumption of UN-backed talks.

The Security Council statement says the elections showed that "most Turkish Cypriots want a united Cyprus to enter the EU".

Cyprus is due to join the EU in May. EU law will not apply to the north of the country if an agreement to re-unite the island has not been reached by then.

Correspondents say Turkey's hopes of being given a date in 2004 to start talks on EU membership depend on a solution to the Cyprus problem.

The US envoy for Cyprus, Thomas Weston, held talks in Nicosia on Thursday and repeated his government's view that there was no alternative to the UN plan.

He was holding talks in Ankara on Friday.