UN hands over revised peace plan to Cypriot leaders

The United Nations submitted a revised peace plan for divided Cyprus yesterday ahead of a crucial EU summit in Copenhagen later this week.

UN envoy Alvaro de Soto handed the new proposals to Glafcos Clerides, the Greek Cypriot leader, and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash. He also handed over a letter from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"The Secretary-General asks the two leaders to give the revision the most urgent consideration with a view to reaching a decisive conclusion this week," the UN said in a statement.

Settlement of the Cyprus issue has become linked to Turkey's demands that it should be given a date for talks on joining the EU at a summit of European Union leaders in Copenhagen tomorrow and Friday.

Admission of a divided island has also fuelled fears among diplomats that it could forever cement partition.

Annan has asked Clerides and Denktash to make themselves available in Copenhagen to discuss the new blueprint for broad power-sharing between the two communities.

"Cyprus has a rendezvous with history," Annan said in an accompanying letter to the two leaders. "It should not be missed."

Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash said the revised draft was an old document.

"The UN has handed us what they say is a new document. It is an old document which we will review again tomorrow with the political party leaders," Denktash said in north Nicosia.

In the south, Greek Cypriots were bracing themselves for sticky negotiations in the Danish capital.

Earlier yesterday, leaders of the four largest Greek Cypriot parties said they would accompany Clerides to Copenhagen, just a few days after ruling that possibility out.

Greek Cypriot government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said Clerides would not yield to pressure for a settlement without being convinced it was a good deal.

"He will sign only if he is convinced this is in the national interest,"

In Athens, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the EU clearly preferred a reunited Cyprus joining the bloc, but said it would admit a divided state if the latest reunification bid failed.

"I think that Cyprus will accept the package presented. The UN proposal creates a good basis for a longterm solution to the Cyprus conflict," Rasmussen said.

Unlike the initial plan with two alternative scenarios on territorial handovers, the revision contained just one map, Greek Cypriot officials said.

In the initial scenarios, the plan proposed a reduction in the territory controlled by Turkish Cypriots to either 28.4 or 28.6 per cent from the 36 per cent they control today.

That would allow 85,000 of the 162,000 Greek Cypriot refugees to return to former homes under Greek Cypriot administration, and lead to the displacement of 42,000 Turks and Turkish Cypriots.

Cyprus radio reported a change on the number of mainland Greek and Turkish troops allowed to remain. The plan proposes that between 2,500 and 7,500 troops from each side stay.

It also restricts the number of Greek Cypriot refugees allowed to return to their former homes under Turkish Cypriot administration; according to the initial draft, that figure would be 33.33 per cent of the total population of the said area. In the new draft, the figure has been reduced to 28 per cent, Cyprus radio said.

The east Mediterranean island has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded in response to a brief, Greek- inspired coup.