Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 07-09-05

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From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] PAPADOPOULOS - MEETING WITH TALAT

[02] PAPADOPOULOS - TALAT MEETING

[01] PAPADOPOULOS - MEETING WITH TALAT

Speaking after a three hour long meeting with the leader of the Turkish Cypriot community Mehmet Ali Talat, Papadopoulos also said that Wednesday`s meeting took place in a constructive spirit, adding that contacts through the UN will continue to find a way out of this current difficulty.

Mr Talat wanted to introduce changes to the Gambarri agreement, he wanted talks to begin immediately without the committees or to restrict the role of the committees only to a technical level of noting down the titles of issues to be discussed, something which could not have accelerated the process but on the contrary it would have led to an early deadlock, President Papadopoulos said on his return to the Presidential Palace, after his meeting with Talat at the residency of the UN Secretary Generals Special Representative Michael Moller.

Papadopoulos and Talat agreed on July 8 last year, in the presence of senior UN official Imbrahim Gambarri, to set up technical committees and working groups to discuss issues that affect the day to day life of the people and substantive issues of the question of Cyprus. Their top aides, Tasos Tzionis and Rashid Pertev, have held over 50 meetings in the past 14 months to this effect. So far, this has not been achieved.

The July 2006 agreement also provided for periodic meetings between Papadopoulos and Talat to help push the process forward.

We discussed mainly the July agreement process, since this was the issue at hand. We insisted on its speedy and unconditional implementation because we believe this is a process that can push forward in a positive manner the talks towards a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus questions on a new basis, the President pointed out.

We believe that through our suggestions we would have shortened considerably the time needed leading to substantive talks and the solution of the Cyprus problem, he said.

The Greek Cypriot side, he added, insisted a great deal that the committees should prepare the ground seriously and on condition that, as stipulated in the Gambarri process, progress is achieved at the level of the committees, the leaders of the two communities will meet periodically to negotiate the points of dissent which the committees will point out.

The President also said that Talat at todays meeting raised other issues, not as part of the agenda but during the discussion.

[02] PAPADOPOULOS - TALAT MEETING

In a statement after the meeting, Moller said ``they agreed on the need for the earliest start of the process and discussed other issues leading to a comprehensive settlement.``

``They agreed to continue their contact through the UN and to meet again when appropriate,`` he concluded.

The meeting took place at Moller`s residence in Nicosia. It began at 16:10 and ended at 19:20 local time.

Following the statement by Moller, the leaders of the two communities departed from the residence.

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