NEW YORK : Hope for Cyprus?

A new and perhaps final phase of negotiations over the divided Mediterranean island of Cyprus is expected to begin Wednesday at U.N. headquarters when Cyprus President George Vassiliou sits across a bargaining table for the first time from the leader of the Turkish Cypriots, Rauf Denktash.

Both men have been listening to compromise proposals from U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali since June, but only in separate meetings with him--never together.

Boutros-Ghali has proposed a federal state with powers shared by the island’s Greek and Turkish communities. But still at issue are what to do with refugees forced from their homes in 1974 fighting on the island and just how to divide the territory under a new constitution.