KKTC seeks new government

Eroglu, leader of the National Unity Party (UBP), the largest group in Parliament, opposed a reunification plan drafted by the UN to reunite the island earlier this year.

Denktas said he would ask Eroglu to form the new government and the former minister will then start talks with political parties in search of a coalition.

Eroglu, who opposed the U.N. plan in an April 24 referendum, announced on Wednesday that the Democratic Party (DP) of Serdar Denktas, the foreign minister in Talat’s government, would be his first choice if the president asks him to form the new government.

Serdar Denktas has earlier declined to dismiss prospects for a coalition with the UBP, saying his party would consider all proposals. But a UBP-DP alliance would need backing from at least one more party, as this falls short of meeting the minimum majority number of 25 in the 20-seat Parliament.

Eroglu’s UBP is the biggest party in the Turkish Cypriot Parliament, with 19 deputies. Talat’s CTP has 15 and Serdar Denktas’s DP has five seats.

If efforts to form a new government do not succeed in 60 days, President Denktas will have the right to call for early elections. Officials said early polls were likely to take place in January, after a Dec. 17 summit in which EU leaders will decide whether or not to open accession talks with Turkey.

Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said he was proud of the democratic structure in the KKTC but warned that critical efforts aimed at ending the international isolation of Turkish Cypriots needed political stability to succeed.

"Sometimes, matters of domestic politics, personal concerns or capriciousness should be left aside. Turkish Cypriots should concentrate on their national cause," Gul said in comments on the resignation of Talat’s government.

The resignation of Prime Minister Talat’s government came at the end of months-long efforts to build a new coalition government after his coalition lost its parliamentary majority following resignations from both his Republican Turks’ Party (CTP) and Serdar Denktas’s DP.

Talat’s efforts to create a new government have been undermined by the European Union’s failure to lift trade restrictions against the Turkish Cypriots as a reward for their "yes" vote in an April 24 referendum.

On Monday, the EU approved an aid package of 259 million euros for the Turkish Cypriots, but the Greek Cypriots blocked plans to allow direct trade, fearing this could lead to eventual legal recognition of the north.