CYPRUS 3 September 2008 Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders plan historic meeting

Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat agreed in July to substantive reunification talks. They met at the abandoned Nicosia airport in the buffer zone that has divided the Mediterranean country for 34 years. The venue of the September meeting hasn't been announced. The talks, after four years of deadlock, are described as a last ditch effort to reunify the island. Cyprus split into a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north and an internationally recognised Greek Cypriot south in 1974, when Turkey invaded after a short-lived coup by Greek Cypriots who wanted to unite the island with Greece.

It's not the first attempt to move reunification forward, but it is the first where the two leaders of the divided island are driving the initiative. The negotiations of 2002-2004, at which United Nations officials tried to bring the sides together, failed.

The election of Christofias as Greek Cypriot president in February is seen as the catalyst for reviving the peace process. Succeeding the hardline Tassos Papadopoulos, he immediately sought talks with Talat.

A border crossing in central Nicosia was opened in April as a gesture, reunifying the two sides of Ledra Street, the main shopping district, after a 34-year gap.

The agreement has boosted optimism on the island. There are still substantive issues to resolve. They include the Turkish military presence in north Cyprus, the return of properties and the rights of Turkish settlers. Jul/08