CYPRUS: The United States and Britain pledged financial aid to help reunite Cyprus yesterday in an attempt to save a troubled UN peace plan which gained an unexpected boost from Greece ahead of a crucial referendum next week.
Opinion polls have suggested that Greek Cypriots, the majority on the island, safe in the knowledge that they will join the European Union on May 1st anyway, are prepared to ignore international pressure and financial incentives and vote No to the UN blueprint.
At a preparatory donors' conference timed to give Greek and Turkish Cypriots an incentive to vote for reunification on April 24th, Washington offered $400 million in reconstruction assistance for the island and London $37 million.
Greece, which refused to sign up to the plan last month, said yesterday the deal contained "more positives than negatives" in the context of Cyprus's EU accession.
Turkish Cypriots are set to vote Yes despite the dogged opposition of their veteran president, Mr Rauf Denktash, and the disgruntlement of the powerful Turkish military, which maintains some 30,000 troops on the divided island.
Guarded support from the Greek Prime Minister, Mr Costas Karamanlis, after a rare meeting of all political party leaders, may sway some Greek Cypriots, as could a warning from Brussels that the EU may otherwise end trade sanctions on northern Cyprus.
"There is a clear view that if there's no solution at the end of the month, there will be no solution for a very long time," the EU Enlargement Commissioner, Mr Günter Verheugen, said.
"Nobody should have any delusions that delaying tactics could help," he said in a clear rejection of calls by some Greek Cypriot politicians to postpone the referendum.
If the Greek Cypriots voted No, the EU would move to end the economic isolation of the Turkish Cypriots, he added.
A defiant Mr Denktash told the Turkish parliament in Ankara that the UN plan would bring disaster to his people and to Turkey as well.
"Our end will be near if we enter the EU with the Annan plan," he said.
The Turkish Prime Minister, Mr Tayyip Erdogan, who backs the UN plan as vital for Turkey's own EU bid, pointedly stayed away.
The Turkish Cypriot Prime Minister, Mr Mehmet Ali Talat, who favours the settlement, endorsed the peace blueprint at the Brussels conference.
Washington and London see a Cyprus settlement as central to efforts to stabilise the eastern Mediterranean and open the way for Turkey to join the European Union.