UN´s Ban seeks to boost Cyprus peace push

Ban Ki-moon held talks on a mission aimed at trying to inject new life into flagging talks to reunify Cyprus after decades of division.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon held talks in Cyprus on Monday on a mission aimed at trying to inject new life into flagging talks to reunify the eastern Mediterranean island after decades of division.

Ban went into a meeting with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat after a tour of the United Nations-patrolled buffer zone in Nicosia that slices across the whole island.

Hundreds of Turkish Cypriot demonstrators urged Ban to press for a solution.

''Solution Now!'' and ''Mr Ban, encourage the leaders to take action for a solution,'' read the placards as he entered Turkish-held northern Nicosia through a pedestrian crossing in the world's last divided capital.

''Peace on Cyprus cannot be blocked ... Peace, democracy, federation,'' they chanted as the UN secretary general walked over to greet the crowd before the meeting with Talat.

Ban was also to hold separate talks with President Demetris Christofias, a Greek Cypriot, ahead of a joint meeting of the three leaders and a news conference.

During his tour of the buffer zone in the heart of Nicosia, the secretary general sounded a personal note as he urged Talat and Christofias to redouble their efforts to reach a solution, which he said was within reach.

Ban Ki-moon: ''I have seen myself the very sad reality''

- As a citizen of Korea, I am coming from a country where it is still divided between the south and north - he said.

''I have seen for myself the very sad reality, the emptiness and destruction, and such very painful feelings I share with the people of Cyprus ... I am here to show my solidarity, my support for these ongoing talks.''

Ban had told reporters on his arrival late on Sunday that he was ''under no illusion that the Cyprus problem is easy to solve or about the difficulties you face.''

The rival Cypriot leaders whose negotiations have dragged on for 17 months need to show ''courage, flexibility, vision and a spirit of compromise'' to end the division, he said.

Ban's predecessor Kofi Annan travelled to Cyprus eight years ago and urged the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities at the time to seize a ''historic opportunity.''

Rejected reunification blueprint

But the Greek Cypriots later rejected Annan's reunification blueprint in a referendum, ensuring Cyprus joined the European Union still divided in 2004 despite a Turkish Cypriot referendum approving Annan's plan.

The latest UN-led effort has also struggled to produce tangible results since it was launched amid much optimism in September 2008. Christofias and Talat have yet to secure any breakthrough in sluggish negotiations.

The Greek Cypriot side has welcomed heightened interest from the international community, but has also been quick to underline that Ban was not coming to seal a peace agreement.

The two sides remain far apart on the core issues of property, security and territorial adjustments.

Ban's visit comes after two rounds of intensified negotiations between the two leaders that were meant to accelerate the reunification of Cyprus.

The talks will need to be suspended soon, however, to allow Talat to campaign for elections called for April 18 in the breakaway self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Talat is trailing in the polls to hardliner Dervis Eroglu.

The leaders are committed to finding a solution

The leaders of both sides have said they are committed to finding a solution in 2010, a timetable strongly backed by the United Nations and United States. Any deal must be put before their people in separate referendums.

The 850-strong UN force on Cyprus is the world's oldest peacekeeping mission, deployed to quell inter-communal fighting in 1963.

Cyprus has been split since Turkish troops seized and occupied its northern third in 1974 in response to a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.