Rival Cypriot Leaders to Hold Talks

Rival leaders of bitterly divided Cyprus agreed Tuesday to hold face-to-face negotiations on ending the Mediterranean island’s 27-year division as it pursues European Union membership.

The breakthrough decision was hailed as the best chance in decades to end the Cyprus standoff, which has kept Greece and Turkey at loggerheads and stifled Turkey’s long-term dream of joining the EU.

Greek Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides agreed to go for the first time in decades to the north of the island--occupied since 1974 by Turkish troops--to have dinner today with Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash.

U.N. special envoy Alvaro deSoto said the two sides also agreed to hold a series of talks in mid-January on Cyprus.

In Ankara, the Turkish capital, Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit said the move was a “pleasing development” that could bear fruit. Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis also welcomed it but was cautious.

“I have no illusions that these talks will produce magically an immediate solution,” he said in Athens. “It needs work. . . . But it is a road, and this road we must hail.”

Turkey invaded the northern part of Cyprus in 1974 in response to a short-lived coup engineered by the military junta then ruling Greece. It maintains a large garrison on the island and sponsors Denktash’s breakaway state, which is recognized by no other country.

Pressure for a Cyprus settlement has increased with the EU’s plan to complete negotiations with prospective candidates, including Clerides’ internationally recognized government, next year for entry in 2004.