UN envoy hopeful on Cyprus, says multi-party summit premature

The key U.N. envoy seeking to break a deadlock in Cyprus's long-running division said she was cautiously optimistic about a breakthrough but that it would be premature to convene a multi-nation summit on the conflict.

In an interview with Cyprus's Phileleftheros daily, envoy Maria Angela Holguin said she was hopeful after meeting with Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman on December 11. She said their discussion, which agreed to focus also on confidence-building, was "deep, sincere and very straightforward".

"While encouraging, the dialogue process between both leaders is at its early beginning. More will need to be done in order to strengthen the nascent momentum and establish a real climate of trust that would allow the Secretary-General to convene a 5+1 informal meeting," said Holguin, a former Colombian foreign minister.

A 5+1 meeting would be an informal summit of the two Cypriot communities with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and representatives of Britain, Turkey and Greece to define how to move forward and break a seven-year stalemate in peace talks. The three NATO nations are guarantor powers of Cyprus under a treaty which granted the island independence from Britain in 1960.

A power-sharing administration of Cypriot Greeks and Turks crumbled in 1963. Turkey invaded the north of the island in 1974 after a brief coup engineered by the military then ruling Greece. The island has been split on ethnic lines ever since.

Turkish Cypriots live in a breakaway state in the north, while Greek Cypriots in the south run an internationally recognised administration representing the whole island in the European Union.