UN hopes that Cyprus peace plan will be passed in 2002 prior to EU summit

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan hopes that the relevant UN plan for settling the Cyprus conflict will be approved prior to the European Union's December 12 summit, that is, before the official invitation for Cyprus to join the EU. This was disclosed by Annan's spokesperson in New York in the evening of November 22.

The UN Secretary-General, who is mostly satisfied with that positive reaction to the UN peace plan, hopes to obtain the concerned parties' proposals in the near future, the spokesperson noted. The talks should begin as soon as possible, thereby making it possible to use a chance for unhesitatingly solving this problem, the statement reads in part.

Until now, general provisions of the UN peace plan for Cyprus, which stipulates the creation of an integral Cypriot state, and which envisages wide-ranging autonomy for the country's Greek and Turkish diasporas, were approved by Greece and the Republic of Cyprus. For their own part, Turkish officials also voiced their readiness to discuss the UN plan, although more cautiously.

Rauf Denktash, leader of Cypriot Turks and president of the self-proclaimed Turkish republic of northern Cyprus, is the only one, who hasn't yet replied to UN proposals. Denktash is still staying at a New York hospital, after he underwent heart surgery there early in October Denktash is to negotiate with the newly-appointed Turkish Foreign Minister Yasar Yakis in New York November 23, subsequently learning about the Turkish side's reaction to these UN proposals.