Turkey pushes for Cyprus solution

By William Horsley BBC European affairs correspondent

Turkish Cypriots are torn between EU dreams and old fears

Turkey has said it wants new political talks to begin on a UN plan to end the 30-year-old division of Cyprus into Greek- and Turkish-speaking parts.

That was the conclusion of a meeting on Friday of Turkey's powerful National Security Council, which includes leaders of the country's armed forces.

In the tortuous history of political moves to re-unite the island this is a step forward.

However, it is not clear that it will prove decisive.

The statement from the National Security Council said that Turkey was determined to reach an early solution to the Cyprus problem through negotiations, taking the plan devised by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan as "a reference".

But the Turkish authorities have not unequivocally accepted the Annan plan.

It foresees that Turkish Cypriots should give up part of the land they have occupied since the conflict there and the invasion by Turkish troops 30 years ago.

A new political structure with shared institutions but a high degree of autonomy on both sides would be put in place, leading to the end of the political isolation of the Turkish-occupied north.

Membership prize

Turkey's own ambition, to begin talks leading to its membership in the European Union, would get a big boost.

But talks on the Annan plan involving representatives of both sides on Cyprus collapsed early last year and Kofi Annan himself has said they can only resume when both the official Cyprus government and leaders of northern Cyprus publicly accept its main terms.

Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is to meet Mr Annan at the international leaders' meeting in the Swiss resort of Davos at the weekend.

He has shown a clear will to achieve progress towards a political settlement on Cyprus before May, when the officially recognised part of the island will enjoy the full benefits of EU membership.

His goal has received a boost by the formation of a pro-settlement government in the north.

But in reality all sides are thought to have important reservations about the Annan plan as it stands.

So a political breakthrough seems closer but has not yet happened.