UN chief lands on divided Cyprus with message of peace
LARNACA, Cyprus — UN chief Ban Ki-moon landed in Cyprus on Sunday for key talks with Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders aimed at reviving a faltering peace effort to end 36 years of division on their island.
"I'm here to show my personal support ... My visit is a reflection of the importance I attach to the current efforts," he told reporters at Larnaca airport on the south coast to mark his first visit to the Mediterranean island.
"I am under no illusion that the Cyprus problem is easy to solve or about the difficulties you face, at the same time I'm confident that a solution is possible and within reach," the secretary general said.
Ban paid tribute to the "time and energy" invested by rival Cypriot leaders and said they needed to show "courage, flexibility, vision and a spirit of compromise" to end the division.
"Your destiny is in your hands, you are the ones driving the process ... The expectation of the international community is very high. Let's not underestimate the benefits of a solution," he said.
"Solving the Cyprus problem will give inspiration to all those around the world trying to solve other seemingly intractable problems and I'm looking forward to having good meetings with the leaders tomorrow (Monday)."
The Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders say they are committed to finding a solution this year, while the United Nations is hoping 2010 will usher a Cyprus settlement.
President Demetris Christofias, a Greek Cypriot, and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat are looking to secure a breakthrough after nearly 17 months of slow-moving negotiations.
Peace talks were launched amid much optimism and fanfare in September 2008, but the two sides remain divided on the core issues of property, security and territorial adjustments.
On Monday, the UN chief is due to hold separate talks with both men before chairing a joint meeting to decide where the process goes from here as pressure builds for a deal to be sealed this year.
Christofias has ruled out any draft agreement at this stage, as both the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides are adamant that nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.
Any deal which emerges must be put before the Cypriot people in separate, simultaneous referendums.
At the last referendum in 2004, Greek Cypriots rejected a UN blueprint for reunification while Turkish Cypriots backed it.
The international community has called for the momentum of the negotiations to quicken, with Ban showing his personal conviction to help broker a settlement after more than three-and-a-half decades of division.
The intercommunal talks will need to be suspended soon to allow Talat to campaign in April's leadership elections in northern Cyprus where he could lose out to hardliners.
Cyprus has been split since Turkish troops seized and occupied its northern third in 1974 in response to a Greek-led coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
File photo of Ban Ki-Moon. A UN buffer zone separates the two sections. 
A new set of talks are scheduled to attempt to reunite Cyprus, prompting UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to say that a solution is "possible and within reach" when he arrived in the country yesterday for talks between Greek and Turkish-Cypriot leaders that will take place later today.

Progress have been slow for the peace talks, which started in September 2008,  but the UN chief said that a deal would require "courage, flexibility and vision as well as a spirit of compromise". "I am under no illusion that the Cyprus problem is easy to solve", he told reporters after he arrived in Larnaca yesterday in preparation for the talks with Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot Mehmet Ali Talat today.

Ban said that "solving the Cyprus problem will give inspiration to all those around the world trying to solve other seemingly intractable problems and I'm looking forward to having good meetings with the leaders", with the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders saying that they are committed to finding a solution. Monday's talks will involve Ban holding talks with the two leaders individually, before chairing a meeting between the pair. Any deal that emerges will be a subject of two simultaneous referendums, one for each side of the border. Both sides agree that "nothing is agreed until everything is agreed".

Jonny Dymond, the BBC Europe correspondent, has expressed fears that time is running out on a solution. There are also worries that the fast approaching northern Cyprus leadership elections will mean that Talat is replaced by nationalist Dervis Eroglu, who is leading in opinion polls. If this were to happen, talks might be shelved.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, after Turkish forces invaded after a coup led by Greece allegedly aimed to absorb it. Northern Cyprus is only recognised as a state by Turkey.