Annan offers to delay voting on Cyprus unity

CYPRUS: The UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, made a final attempt last night to secure a Cyprus settlement by offering to postpone until April 6th referenda on the reunification of the divided island.

Mr Annan originally set March 30th as the date for the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities to hold separate votes on his proposal for a Swiss-style federation of two cantons linked by a weak central administration.

The extension was, reportedly, granted at the request of Mr Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is set to take over as Turkey's prime minister in several days' time.

He apparently told Mr Annan that he could not deal with the Cyprus issue until there had been a resolution of the Iraq crisis.

Following tense meetings at The Hague with the President of Cyprus, Mr Tassos Papadopoulos, and the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mr Rauf Denktash, it became clear that Mr Annan would not be given a "yes" or "no" reply to his call for referenda.

While Mr Papadopoulos was praised for adopting a positive stance on his plan, Mr Denktash continued to demand recognition for this breakaway state, recognised only by Turkey, and for major revisions or an entirely new proposal which would take into consideration the de facto partition of the island since the Turkish army invaded and occupied the north in 1974. Mr Denktash has rejected, in particular, the territorial provisions of the Annan plan, which calls for a reduction of the Turkish Cypriot controlled area from 37 to 28.2 per cent of the island, claiming that the return of this land would render homeless 100,000 Turkish Cypriots and mainland settlers.

In an effort to secure agreement on another key issue, Mr Annan asked the two island's guarantor states, Greece and Turkey, also represented at The Hague, to break the deadlock over security arrangements for the federation by reaching an accord by March 28th.

Meanwhile Turkish Cypriot opposition leaders who support reunification under the Annan plan and the entry of a united Cyprus into the European Union in 2004 have called on the UN and Brussels to supervise a rebel referendum on March 30th.