UN hands final choice on unity to Cypriots

Kofi Annan, the UN secretary general, warned Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders yesterday that time to clinch a deal to reunite the Mediterranean island had almost run out, as the parties met for last-ditch talks in The Hague.

Rauf Denktash, the Turkish Cypriot leader, and his Greek Cypriot counterpart, Tassos Papadopoulous, had been asked to reply to a request for a UN reunification plan to go to a referendum in both parts of the island. But what was billed as a meeting in which the two sides would be asked bluntly to say "yes" or "no", turned into a full day of negotiations with little sign of movement.

Hopes of a meeting between Mr Denktash, who has taken a hardline stance, and Mr Papadopoulous, who was recently elected Greek Cypriot President, failed to materialise. "It slipped," said one UN official.

Earlier, Mr Annan and his envoy to Cyprus, Alvaro de Soto, had met Mr Papadopoulous and then Mr Denktash. Mr Annan used an newspaper article to warn that "decision time has arrived". A final meeting was planned last night as the talks continued in the marbled halls of the Peace Palace, an impressive Gothic building in the middle of The Hague.

Mr Annan conceded that the Iraq crisis had complicated the task, saying "our work has been overshadowed by the atmosphere of crisis and anxiety affecting the whole world".

European diplomats had hoped the new Turkish government would put pressure on Mr Denktash to settle, particularly as thousands of Turkish Cypriots have demonstrated in favour of the UN plan. But Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish leader, has toned down his support for the UN plan as his political difficulties at home have increased.

Mr Erdogan faces a crisis over American requests to use Turkey to launch an invasion of Iraq – calls already rejected by MPs. Analysts say the political row over Iraq has left him unwilling to take on another controversial issue simultaneously and yesterday Mr Erdogan was quoted in the newspaper Radikal as backing Mr Denktash, saying it would be "impossible to accept the Annan plan in its current form".

In the International Herald Tribune, Mr Annan confronted calls from both sides for more time. "The choice is not between my plan and a radically different one," he wrote. "The choice is between my plan and no solution at all."

Time is pressing because the UN plan is designed to allow the island, which has been divided since 1974, to agree on the reunification plan in time to join the EU as a single entity in May next year. If there is no deal, only the Greek-controlled part of Cyprus will become an EU member. Under Mr Annan's timescale, both Cypriot communities would vote on his plan in separate referendums on 30 March, ahead of the signing ceremony for Cypriot accession to the EU, which is due to take place on 16 April.

The UN proposals would see the construction of a federation with a rotating president and a large degree of autonomy for the two communities. While Mr Papadopoulous's election was seen as a complication for the UN process, Mr Denktash is seen as the major obstacle to a deal.

On Sunday, after extensive negotiations in Ankara, Mr Denktash declared that the Annan plan "does not yet have the qualities necessary to be submitted to a referendum".

The Turkish Cypriot government is highly reluctant to make concessions that will make the island part of the EU – a bloc which requires visas from Turkish citizens. Mr Denktash rejects the return of Greek Cypriot refugees and wants recognition of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus as a first step towards confederation.

Turkish Cypriot leaders are afraid that Greek Cypriots' greater wealth will allow them to take financial control of the island. However, the ruling elite has been rocked by huge demonstrations by Turkish Cypriots desperate to end their isolation and join the EU.

The Greek Cypriots, though more sympathetic, specifically object to the island's exclusion from the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees refugees' rights to reclaim land and property.