Hopes high for Cyprus unity talks

President Clerides, right, during a previous meeting with Denktash

NICOSIA, Cyprus -- Rival leaders in divided Cyprus are holding talks in a fresh attempt to resolve their communities' differences ahead of the Mediterranean island's entry into the European Union.

Cyprus President Glafcos Clerides, 82, and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash arrived separately at Nicosia airport on Wednesday for what is expected to be a long series of talks.

They shook hands for the cameras and posed with U.N. Cyprus envoy Alvaro de Soto, who was to sit in on their talks in a U.N. conference hall built at the abandoned Nicosia airport.

During their meeting, the pair underscored their determination to reach a settlement by agreeing on an intensive schedule for peace talks.

"We had a very good, very good meeting. Everything has gone very well," Denktash said.

"They had a very encouraging start and they began discussing substance right away," said de Soto.

Denktash had previously refused to negotiate until his breakaway state was recognised internationally.

The island has been split along ethnic lines since 1974, when Turkish forces invaded the northern third of Cyprus in response to a brief Greek-inspired coup.

"We are both getting old and this may well be our last chance to agree," Clerides has said.

Denktash pledged on Tuesday to do "everything necessary for peace" in a "framework of two nations, two states internally" but with a single authority representing Cyprus to the outside world.

Denktash, 77, leads a breakaway state on the north, recognised only by Turkey.

To solve their problems, the two leaders have to tackle a number of hard issues, ranging from how property abandoned by fleeing Greek Cypriots can be returned after being occupied by Turkish Cypriots for decades, to the complexities of the constitutional structure of a future reunified state.

Peace 'unstoppable'

The talks have been motivated in part by Cyprus's pending entry into the EU, which has said it will accept the island -- effectively meaning the Greek part -- without a settlement, if necessary.

Greek Cypriots want the island reunified as a single state, in line with U.N. resolutions, while Denktash -- backed by Turkey, which maintains about 35,000 troops in the north -- has called for a looser arrangement linking two independent states.

Late Tuesday, Cypriots on both sides of the Green Line that divides the island stepped up the pressure on their leaders.

Holding candles and singing folk songs popular on both sides of the island, 500 Turkish Cypriots marched on the Turkish side of the capital Nicosia late Tuesday, urging the leaders to end the standoff.

"Peace in Cyprus is unstoppable," protesters chanted.

The need to end the Cyprus dispute -- a long-standing source of tension between NATO allies Turkey and Greece -- is likely to come up when Turkey's prime minister, Bulent Ecevit, meets U.S. President George W. Bush later on Wednesday.

Ecevit, on a four-day trip to Washington, told Vice President Dick Cheney on Tuesday that he hoped the talks would bring a settlement, but added that any deal would have to accept the principle of two states on the island, Turkish officials said on condition of anonymity.