UN Cyprus Deadline Sets EU on Tenterhooks

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has given Cyprus one month to achieve peace and consolidate the two divided sides of the island that has been a scene of unrest and violence for the past 28 years. The UN intervention comes at a time when the European Union is set to decide the island's case for EU membership at a crucial summit in Copenhagen in December.

At the summit, the EU is expected to welcome Cyprus and nine other candidate countries to discuss the next steps towards membership and will decide whether the island should join the EU as a whole or only the Greek Cypriot part.

Turkey threatens action if Cyprus joins EU first

However, storm clouds are gathering as Turkey has threatened to annex the north of the island if a decision to admit Cyprus to the EU is made before Turkey has been allowed to join.

Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash remains adamantly opposed to the island's accession unless Turkey is a member, saying the Greeks would exploit their EU membership to undermine Turkey's claim to the island or any future power sharing compromise.

Greece will veto enlargement if Cyprus is excluded

For its part, Greece has said that it will veto the planned EU expansion if Cyprus is excluded from the list of candidate states. The Greek Cypriots have applied for EU membership on behalf of the entire island, a move that has only added further fuel to the already blazing row.

"There are going to be some very difficult negotiations ahead," Greece's EU affairs minister, Tassos Giannitsis, told the British daily The Guardian.

"The question of sovereignty, and how to create a functional working state that can deal with the EU, is ultimately the most important thing we are going to have to deal with." There has been no deadline set for the leaders to respond - only the timetable of one month to reach agreement on the reunification strategy.

The United Nations delivered details of its peace initiative to the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders as well as those of Greece, Turkey and Britain. It is believed to include the choice of three models that would hopefully avert any damaging decision by either side regarding the future governing of Cyprus within an EU context.

Annan offers three models of reunification

* The Greek and Turkish factions can accept a sovereign state based on the model of Belgium in which the posts of president and prime minister revolve;

* The two sides can form one state based on the Swiss model, with six Greek Cypriot and three Turkish Cypriot ministers;

* Cyprus becomes a state in which an executive president and a vice-president share the power with each having a right of veto.

Kofi Annan's proposal is also thought to include plans for the gradual withdrawal of Turkish troops from the occupied north and a staggered return, over the next 20 years, of an estimated 200,000 refugees forcibly displaced in 1974.

The Secretary General said, "I think the parties know what I have put before them and they are going to study it. I think they realize we have a limited opportunity as we move forward, that there is a unique time in the possibility of getting a united Cyprus into the European Union."

Both sides cautious while asking for time to decide

In a statement issued in New York, Rauf Denktash said that he would evaluate the proposals in a constructive manner. But he warned any 'third parties' that they should allow him time to examine the proposals by saying: ''the two leaders should have the opportunity and the time for free deliberations.''

Costas Simits, the Greek Premier, called the initiative a ''starting point for further negotiations,'' stressing that the EU must be satisfied with any final solution. Simitis is expected to meet with the Cypriot President Galfcos Clerides next Saturday to discuss the plan in detail.

Tensions across Cyprus have been rife ever since Turkey invaded the north of the island in response to an Athens-inspired coup in 1974. There are still 35,000 Turkish troops stationed on the northern half of the island, and more than 1,000 United Nations soldiers manning the Green Line, which separates the two halves of the island and splits the capital of Nicosia.