Turkish Cyprus PM rejects idea of new peace talks for Cyprus

"I do not find it right to re-negotiate the plan. It has been negotiated more than enough and the conjuncture has also changed," Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat, on a one-day visit to Ankara, told the NTV news channel.

The UN plan — which aimed reunite the island before it joined the European Union on May 1 — failed when the internationally-recognized Greek Cypriots in the south voted it down in a referendum last week.

On Wednesday, Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos, backed by Greece, said the plan was still on the table and there were efforts to make it more acceptable to his people.

Talat said it was not possible for him to agree to a new negotiation process.

"This amounts to making fun of the world, making fun of the United Nations and looking down on the Turkish Cypriots" who approved the plan in twin referendums on both sides of the island, Talat said.

"It is not possible for us to accept such a thing," he added

He urged caution on the possibility of holding a second referendum on the UN blueprint, which envisaged re-stitching the island in a loose federation.

"A second referendum could affect the resolution of the Cyprus problem very very badly and maybe forever because the prospects of a solution would collapse with a second ‘no’," Talat said.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said UN efforts to reunify the island were over for now after last week’s Greek Cypriot rejection.

Without reunification, only the Greek Cypriots will join the European Union on Saturday, May 1, while the Turkish Cypriots will be left out.

Talat was scheduled to meet Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul later in the day to discuss steps to be taken in the aftermath of the failure of settlement efforts.