Annan Says Still Time for Accord to Unite Cyprus

“The issues are not new … and luckily the same leaders have been working with us on these issues for about 25 years and we do have time to come to an agreement,” he added.

Seeing a historic opportunity to end a dispute that has long irritated NATO allies and longtime foes Greece and Turkey, Annan wants a framework deal put before a European Union summit opening in Copenhagen on Dec. 12 at which the bloc is expected to invite 10 states, including Cyprus, to join in 2004.

Cyprus has been split since a 1974 Turkish invasion after a brief Greek Cypriot coup engineered by the military then ruling Greece. The self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is recognized only by Turkey.

Clearing the way for down-to-the wire talks on the shape of a future Cyprus, ailing Northern Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash agreed last week to negotiate with his Greek Cypriot counterpart, Cyprus President Glafcos Clerides, on Annan’s blueprint for reunification.

The European Union said Tuesday that Denktash had urged the bloc not to jeopardize a peace deal on Cyprus by admitting a divided island at the Copenhagen summit.

In a letter received by the Danish EU presidency, Denktash vowed to offer soon detailed comments on the peace plan, as the United Nations had demanded by last Saturday.

“In the meantime, I hope that the whole process will not be jeopardized by the EU at the Copenhagen summit by admitting ‘Cyprus’ while the UN is exercising every effort to reach common ground between the two parties,” Denktash said in the letter, which was made available to Reuters.

Both the Turkish and Greek Cypriot sides missed the Saturday deadline for detailed comments, U.N. chief spokesman Fred Eckhard told reporters.

EU OPTIMISTIC ON A DEAL

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, told a news conference in Athens following talks with Turkish and Greek officials he was optimistic a deal on Cyprus could be clinched before the EU decision to invite the island to join.

“I think that there is a very good possibility that we will have an agreement on Cyprus before the end of the meeting in Copenhagen,” Moeller said.

Denktash has been stuck in a New York hotel, too weak to fly home for consultations, since mid-October, when he underwent two rounds of heart surgery.

He was released last week from a New York hospital, where he had been confined since Nov. 8 after coming down with a debilitating infection.

Greece is already an EU member and Turkey also wants to join but has yet to obtain a commitment and fears EU membership for Cyprus will rob it of a powerful bargaining chip.

Major powers around the world are pressing Turkey to give in and clear the way for a united Cyprus to join.