The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, began a new round of indirect talks on the future of the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus in Geneva yesterday, holding separate talks with President Glafcos Clerides of Cyprus and the Turkish Cypriot leader, Mr Rauf Denktash.
Mr Annan's special adviser on Cyprus, Mr Alvaro de Soto, said the new talks would go on "for quite a long period of time". He spoke of "an intensified continuous set of talks that would lead over the next few months into the autumn".
Some observers have expressed cautious optimism about prospects that the new round of talks will produce progress in the decades-old dispute, but others have said there are slim chances of an early breakthrough.
Diplomats hope the prospect of EU membership for Cyprus, the EU decision to admit Turkey as a candidate for membership and a thaw in relations between Greece and Turkey might increase pressure for a solution to the conflict that has defied all previous mediators. However, no face-to-face meetings between Mr Clerides and Mr Denktash have been planned, unlike earlier proximity talks in New York in December and Geneva in January.
The UN confined its role to that of listener at the talks with Mr Clerides and Mr Denktash in December and February. Observers now expect the UN to sound out the two sides on a number of key issues - security, territory, distribution of powers and property issues as part of the settlement.
The Greek Cypriots are demanding a bizonal, bicommunal settlement as prescribed in UN resolutions, while the Turkish Cypriots want a two-state solution. Mr Denktash has asked for international recognition before sitting down to face-to-face talks and is embroiled in a heated row with the UN over its peacekeeping mission in Cyprus, with a Turkish incursion into a UN-controlled area of the island in recent days.
In an interview with the daily Alithia, Mr Clerides said he believed Mr Denktash would play for time ahead of US presidential elections and talks between Turkey and the EU on Turkish membership.
The Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Bulent Ecevit, was doubtful the talks between Mr Clerides and Mr Denktash would succeed. "I am not very hopeful because the Greek Cypriot side do not want to accept reality," he said. "There are two separate states on Cyprus . . . As long as they ignore this truth there cannot be a solution on Cyprus."
Last week, Mr Denktash began restricting the movement of UN peacekeepers on the island. He introduced the sanctions after the UN Security Council dropped an indirect reference to his self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) from the text of a resolution renewing the mandate of UN troops for another six months. Turkish troops later crossed the ceasefire line on Sunday, moving into the buffer zone which has separated the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities since 1974.
Earlier this week, Greece asked Mr Annan to personally deal with the Turkish troop move. However, the government of the breakaway Turkish enclave said yesterday that Turkish forces had a right to set up the new checkpoint.
Turkish troops advanced 300 metres and set up a checkpoint near the Greek Cypriot village of Strovilia, blocking access to the small community for UN peacekeepers patrolling the buffer zone.
The Turkish Cypriot foreign ministry said yesterday that it intended to bar UN peacekeepers from crossing to the north from all points except one in the divided capital, Nicosia. "It should be regarded as natural that we should inspect entry and exit from our sovereign territory by setting up a checkpoint," the statement said. Turkish Cypriots say the village is partly in their territory and partly inside a British sovereign base, but the UN says that it administers the area.