The Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders rejected UN ideas for breaking the long deadlock in negotiations over the divided island as their latest round of reunification talks ended Monday, reported The Associated Press.
Talks are now scheduled to resume with a fifth round in Geneva in November and what a Greek Cypriot source said would be a final, sixth round back at UN headquarters in January, according to the agency.
Efforts by the UN special adviser on Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, to bridge differences proved "unworkable," said Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash.
Cyprus President Glafcos Clerides, the Greek Cypriot leader, said he rejected ideas put forward by de Soto because they did not comply with Security Council demands outlining the form of a settlement, the AP said.
The two leaders spoke to reporters after their final separate meetings with de Soto on the final 14th day of the talks.
Denktash said "they are trying to take part of our views and part of Greek Cypriot views, but the emerging result is unworkable for us."
He repeated his long-standing demand that a settlement must be based on "the realities" created by the 1974 Turkish invasion that split the island into a Greek Cypriot controlled south and the Turkish-occupied north.
A breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in the north is only recognized by Ankara which maintains 35,000 troops there.
Denktash refuses to meet Clerides face-to-face in the talks unless his state is recognized as a first step to reunification in the form of a confederation of two sovereign states, the AP added.
Security Council resolutions call for reunification as a single sovereign state with one Greek and one Turkish Cypriot federal region, according to the agency -- Albawaba.com
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
