Hopes fade for initial deal, but race is still on

HOPES of reaching an initial agreement on the UN settlement plan for Cyprus before the December 12 Copenhagen summit appeared to be fading yesterday.

Greece said meeting the deadlines was now no longer possible and there was uncertainty over whether the two sides would be submitting comments on the peace plan to the UN by today, as requested by Secretary-general Kofi Annan. One source close to the consultations said: It is all a bit up in the air at the moment."

DIKO leader and presidential candidate Tassos Papadopoulos said yesterday there was not enough time to give the UN an answer by today on changes they would want made to the 140-page draft. "It is simple, we do not have enough time," said Papadopoulos. "The National Council has worked intensively, but there are just so many points raised (in the plan) that we cannot do it in time."

But Annan's special envoy Alvaro de Soto insisted he was hopeful that an agreement could still be reached, despite the fast shrinking timeframe. He was engaged in a diplomatic shuttle yesterday. Speaking after a meeting with President Glafcos Clerides yesterday morning, De Soto, who flew to Athens later in the day after returning from Ankara on Thursday night, said he remained hopeful of securing a deal before December 12. Asked by journalists if Clerides had given him a letter or a message to convey to Annan, De Soto said: "No letters."

He was also questioned about Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash's letter to the Secretary-general, submitted this week a full 10 days after Annan's original deadline for a first reply to his plan. The UN said it appeared the reply was a 'yes' to the plan, but subsequent statements by Denktash have rejected crucial elements of the proposal.

Yesterday, De Soto said he considered Denktash was "prepared to negotiate on the basis of the SG's document." He said the Turkish Cypriot leader "has said it clearly and we have said it in a communiqué in New York two days ago".

But the Greek government said yesterday the Turkish side's delays meant it was now very difficult for an agreement before Copenhagen.

Greek Government Spokesman Christos Protopapas blamed Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots for delaying negotiations on the UN plan. "An agreement will be very difficult to reach. A dialogue is what is being asked for," Protopappas said. He did not think a solution would be found by Copenhagen, even if Greek and Turkish Cypriots began discussing the 140-page proposal.

"If, as it seems now, we don't have an agreement in principle by December 12... the entry of Cyprus into the EU is a completely separate issue," Protopapas said.

For his part, De Soto told reporters in Athens after talks with Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou: "It's clear that there is little time left, but we are convinced that it's possible to secure a settlement on the main portion (of the plan) that should be agreed in advance of the Copenhagen summit."

The EU has always said it would admit a divided Cyprus, but the race is on to smoothe the way for an agreement, through the signing before the summit of a foundation agreement based on the UN plan.

However, neither side is pleased with the full content of the plan, although agreement appears to have been reached to negotiate the content. The situation has also been hampered by the poor health of Denktash, who underwent heart surgery in the US in October and remains in New York.

In Ankara, Turkish and Turkish Cypriot officials met yesterday to prepare a paper outlining their objections to the UN plan.

Turkish Cypriot 'foreign minister' Tahsin Ertugruloglu told reporters they were endeavouring to meet today's deadline to present their objections but might not manage to do so. Denktash has raised huge objections to the plan's territorial adjustments, which reduce Turkish-administered areas from 37 to 28.5 per cent, calling the proposal "a scandal".

"It is not possible to accept the document in its present form," Ertugruloglu said during a break in yesterday's meetings, also attended by Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis and Denktash's top adviser Ergun Olgun, who was with the Turkish Cypriot leader in New York until late this week.

Ertugruloglu criticised the fact that the settlement timetable appeared to have been linked to EU enlargement. "I find it strange that a process which has been going on within the UN framework should be indexed to the EU," he said.
CYPRUS MAIL 30/11/2002

De Soto gets his own plane for direct flights to Ankara

THE UN has given its Cyprus special envoy Alvaro de Soto a chartered private plane to ease travelling difficulties between Cyprus and Turkey and save time during the intensive talks he is conducting between Athens, Ankara and Nicosia.

Spokesman Brian Kelly said the seven-seater plane, a Beechcraft King Air turbo propeller was first used by De Soto when he returned from Ankara to Cyprus on Thursday evening.

Kelly said the plane, chartered from a Danish company, met De Soto in Ankara. The UN envoy had travelled there from Berlin on a commercial flight. Yesterday he hopped onto the plane, based at RAF Akrotiri, to fly to Athens for a meeting with Greek Foreign Minster George Papandreou and was expected to return to Cyprus later last night.

"The chartering of the plane was in the works for several weeks," Kelly said. "Clearly it was understood that there would be an increase in travelling or intensity of consultation as we came closer to December 12," he added, referring to the deadline for the signing of a preliminary agreement based on the UN settlement plan submitted by UN Secretary-general Kofi Annan on November 11.

"As a precaution this was put in the works and one of the primary benefits is being able to fly direct to Ankara," Kelly said.

Because of the political situation on the island, anyone who wishes to fly to Turkey must first fly to Athens, since planes leaving Larnaca Airport are not allowed to fly over Turkish airspace.

The ban meant that each time De Soto needed to fly to Ankara, he would have to fly to Athens, from there to Istanbul and from there to Ankara.

"That has meant in effect that any time Mr De Soto and his team have had consultations in Ankara, they have to leave here the previous evening, overnight in Athens, change plane then fly to Istanbul and change flight again and continue to Ankara," Kelly said. With the private plane from Akrotiri, the flight is only around three hours "as opposed to almost a day".

"With intensive travel like this what Mr De Soto loses in frequent flyer miles he gains in greater efficiency and all out of commitment to the consultative process," Kelly said.