Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders on Monday abandoned talks between themselves to reunite their Mediterranean island, opening the way for Greece and Turkey to try to hammer out a deal.
Feuding Greek and Turkish Cypriots have been meeting almost daily since February 19 to agree on a UN peace plan which aims to reunite Cyprus before it joins the European Union on May 1. But both sides have refused to budge on their key demands.
"At this phase of talks there has not been any significant progress, in any case not on issues of substance," Greek Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos told Reuters after talks in Nicosia with Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash and United Nations envoy Alvaro de Soto.
Four-way talks including officials from Athens and Ankara will now begin on Wednesday at a Swiss resort on Lake Lucerne. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis are scheduled to join them on March 28.
UN secretary-general Kofi Annan has been mandated to fill in any unresolved issues on his power-sharing blueprint, which will be put to a referendum of both communities on April 20.
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