UN head Kofi Annan unveiled a revised Cyprus plan on Monday that he said would "break the ice" in stalled talks to unite the island after 30 years of Greeks and Turks living apart.
Secretary General Annan's new proposals, presented at high-pressure talks at the Swiss Alpine resort of Buergenstock, would give Greeks more land but allow fewer to return home to what after a 1974 partition became the Turkish zone of the island.
"As the snowfall subsided, the fog lifted and the sun appeared in Buergenstock," Annan told the host of negotiators.
The big unanswered question was how Annan proposed getting around the main stumbling block to a deal - Turkish Cypriots insistence on iron clad guarantees to protect their way of life and Greek insistence that a deal must follow EU law on rights to travel and buy property throughout the island.
The changed plan was the latest act in a long drama to unite the east Mediterranean island so that both Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots could join the European Union on May 1.
The 9,000 page document, which sources involved in the talks said contained substantial changes, was given to Greek Cypriot, Turkish Cypriot, Greek and Turkish negotiators at a formal ceremony at Buergenstock on the shores of Lake Lucerne.
Predictably, both sides found pluses and minuses in their first reading of Annan's new ideas.
Annan has taken personal charge of the stalled talks and given the sides until Wednesday to come up with a deal that could allow a united Cyprus to enter the EU on May 1.
Annan has a mandate to fill in any disputed gaps if the sides fail to agree. The plan is then due to go to referendums on both sides of Cyprus on April 20.
Sources who have seen the plan said revisions to a blueprint Annan first presented more than a year ago included a proposed five percent reduction in land held by Turkish Cypriots to 29 percent and a reduction in the number of Greek Cypriots allowed to settle in the Turkish part of northern Cyprus.
Opinion polls show many Cypriots see economic attractions in a united Cyprus going into the EU, but that each side is wary of any deal that gives away too much to the other on issues such as freedom of movement on the island and property ownership.
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