Cypriot leaders meeting for talks

Mr Talat (right) says there is little trust between the two sides

Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat are meeting in Nicosia for the first time in over a year.

The pair arrived separately for the talks in a UN-patrolled neutral zone.

The leaders are expected to discuss how to revive efforts to reunite the island, divided since 1974, but analysts say optimism is low.

When they last met they promised to set up bi-communal working groups, but one year on no progress has been made.

Experts on the committees were supposed to address matters of substance and Mr Papadopoulos and Mr Talat would meet intermittently to assess the process, says the BBC's Tabitha Morgan, in Nicosia.

However, Mr Talat recently said that trust between the two communities was at a very low ebb.

Some say the meeting is part of Mr Papadopoulos's campaign for re-election next February.

Up to now he has shown little enthusiasm for meeting Mr Talat.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded the north in response to a military coup on the island which was backed by the Athens government.