Turkish, Greek Cypriot leaders making best progress since division

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

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"They have made real progress, they have put more on paper now of an agreed nature than at any time since 1974," Downer told reporters after Friday's 25th meeting between Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat and his Greek Cypriot counterpart Demetris Christofias.

The leaders concluded EU-related matters in their meeting at the buffer zone in Nicosia and will tackle the economic aspect of a solution next week.

"There is an expectation from the international community that this time the two leaders can finally reach agreement," Downer said.

"There is very strong support for this process coming from the Secretary General of the United Nations... the new President of the United States, President Obama... Russia and China," he added.

The Australian former foreign minister would not be drawn into reports that the U.N. aims to conclude talks on a Cyprus settlement by the end of the year and take it to a reunification vote in January 2010.

"We will see when the end game comes. We will certainly be announcing it," he said.

Talat and Christofias last September began reunification talks aimed at reaching an agreement to end the island's decades-long division after a four-year hiatus, marking the first major push for peace since the failure of a U.N. reunification plan in 2004, which was approved by Turkish Cypriots but overwhelmingly rejected by Greek Cypriots.

The two leaders have begun tackling thorny issues such as power sharing and property rights, but serious differences reportedly still remain.

The U.N. sees 2009 as the last chance to cut a deal on the island. Officials have warned both sides that the U.N. would not mediate if the leaders fail to reach an agreement by the end of 2009 and that it would end its efforts to solve the problem.

Talat to meet Clinton

The Turkish Cypriot leader will meet U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton next Wednesday to discuss the reunification talks, a source in Talat's office said on Friday.

The meeting will come four days before a general election in northern Cyprus, in which Talat's ruling left-wing Turkish Republican Party is forecast by polls to lose ground to the right-wing National Unity Party.