Momentum builds to ease Cyprus deadlock

Moves to pump fresh life into a stalled UN Cyprus peace plan gained momentum yesterday, with Turkish Cypriots edging closer to a coalition and their sponsors in Ankara working on a new diplomatic initiative.

Turkish Cypriot politicians said they were close to forming a coalition government that might dust off the UN blueprint as a broad basis for more talks with the Greek Cypriot south of the Mediterranean island, split on ethnic lines for three decades.

Turkey's government and military top brass, under international pressure to break the stalemate before the Greek Cypriot government joins the European Union on May 1, met in Ankara to try to thrash out a fresh stance on the UN plan.

And Turkish Cypriot party leaders travelled to Ankara for individual talks with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

General elections last month in the breakaway Turkish Cypriot enclave, recognised and supported only by Turkey, ended in a dead heat between parties supporting the UN's so-called Annan Plan and an outgoing government that rejected it.

But the leader of one of the parties opposed to the plan, Serdar Denktash, said he might join a new coalition with the pro-settlement Republican Turkish Party (CTP), which emerged by a whisker as the biggest single party.

"If we can agree, a government will be formed by the weekend," he told a joint news conference with the CTP.

Mr Denktash is the son of veteran Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, who wants a two-state solution and was widely blamed for the collapse of peace talks in March 2003.

Serdar Denktash, loyal to his hawkish father but slightly less hardline, said officials from his Democrat Party would join CTP members to look afresh at the UN blueprint.

The plan envisages a loose federation with broad autonomy for the two ethnic communities and some transfer of territory.

Speaking later in Ankara after meeting Erdogan, CTP leader Mehmet Ali Talat said he believed he would form a government before his mandate to find coalition partners ran out on Monday.

Greek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos said in a statement his government was ready to resume talks on the basis of the Annan Plan. But he said the party leaders' trip to Ankara showed it was Turkey that called the shots in northern Cyprus.

"Decisions are taken in Turkey by Turkey," he said. Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a Greek Cypriot coup backed by Athens. Turkey keeps 30,000 troops in the north and backs the Turk Cypriot enclave economically.

But Brussels has warned Turkey's own EU hopes will be harmed if it fails to push the Turkish Cypriots into some kind of deal.

Financial markets are also watching closely, fearing damage to Turkey's EU chances. News on the possible coalition boosted Turkish bonds to record highs in London yesterday morning.

In Ankara, Mr Erdogan and other ministers met top military officers to try to agree a fresh stance before the Turkish prime minister meets US President George W. Bush later this month.