Cyprus president tells pope of hope for peace

Cypriot President Demetris Christofias received visiting Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday, expressing hope for peace and calling on the world to press Turkey on its occupation of the island's north.

Their meeting, on the second day of the pontiff's landmark trip, came ahead of talks with the head of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, who has angrily denounced Turkey for "ethnic cleansing" in the north and for seeking to annex the whole country.

Christofias spoke of the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus in response to a Greek Cypriot coup seeking unification with Greece. Turkish troops remain in the island's northern third.

He said Cyprus since 1974 has been "experiencing the painful military occupation of more than 36 percent of its territory."

Remembering the pope's visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories last year, he said: "I recall that you prayed for peace. May this prayer for peace soon be fulfilled in the case of Cyprus as well."

Christofias said he sought a "just, viable and functional solution to the Cyprus problem" under the framework of a "bizonal, bicommunal federation with political equality for the two communities."

So far, years of on-off negotiations with the breakaway self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus have failed to end the division.

"The international community must exert its influence on Turkey" to facilitate that, Christofias said. "Otherwise, justice and stability in the whole area of the eastern Mediterranean will be jeopardised."

On Friday, Archbishop Chrysostomos II, head of the country's Orthodox church, had said that, since 1974, "Cyprus and its church have been experiencing the most difficult times in their history."

Turkey had attacked Cyprus "barbarously" and, "with the tolerance of the so-called ‘civilised’ world,'" is implementing "unholy plans, first to annex our occupied territories and then the whole of Cyprus."

There are unconfirmed reports that the pontiff will accept a request from the Turkish Cypriot Muslim leader, Mufti Yusuf Suicmez, for a meeting.

The pope, addressing senior Cypriot officials and the diplomatic community, did not directly address the issue, but did refer to "countries with delicate political situations."

He spoke of the need to build trust and solid bonds of friendship between individuals, peoples and nations.

"Let me encourage all of you... to seize the opportunities afforded you... to build these relationships and, in so doing, to foster the greater good of the concert of nations and the true good of those you represent."

Benedict later went to Chrysostomos' palace, for private talks before lunch with numerous dignitaries.

Influential Bishop Athanasios of Limassol, who has called the pope a "heretic," boycotted the lunch, along with another of Cyprus's 14 bishops, state broadcaster CyBC said.

The pope, who had stressed the religious rather than political nature of his visit, nonetheless did refer to the Cyprus question.

"I now join you in praying that all the inhabitants of Cyprus, with God's help, will find the wisdom and strength needed to work together for a just settlement of issues remaining to be resolved."

He also evoked the plight of Christians in the Middle East. Bishops from the region will meet in Rome in October to discuss the issue, and the pope will deliver to them on Sunday a working document for the gathering.

"No one can remain indifferent to the need to support in every way possible the Christians of that troubled region, so that its ancient churches can live in peace and flourish," he said.

Pope Benedict's three-day pilgrimage to Cyprus is the first ever by a pontiff and his first to an Orthodox country.

Earlier on Saturday, the pontiff visited a primary school of the Maronites, a small minority in Cyprus that has its roots in Lebanon and Syria and is in communion with Rome.

The Maronites historically lived in the north of Cyprus, and their villages there are fading away. Maronite Archbishop Youssef Soueif pleaded with the pope, saying "help us return to our villages."

Meanwhile, amid the paedophilia scandal plaguing the Catholic church, Benedict spoke of the need for "good, holy and well-formed priests."

At the end of the afternoon, the pope will celebrate mass at Nicosia's Franciscan church of the Holy Cross, located amid barbed wire and shell-pocked buildings in the UN buffer zone between north and south.