UN chief urges intensified talks and horse trading, says Turkish Cypriot president

LEFKOSA (A.A) - 10.05.2011 - UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged Cypriot parties to start intensified talks and horse trading after the three-way meeting planned for June, Turkish Cypriot President Dervis Eroglu said on Tuesday.
Turkish and Greek Cypriot leaders have been negotiating since September 2008 to reunify the island but UN-backed talks have brought little progress.
Commenting on options on Ban's table after prospective intensified talks and horse trading, Eroglu said that Ban would either opt for continued talks or he would take another position for a dead end in talks.
"It is Mr. Secretary-General to decide on the future of talks, if intensified talks and horse trading made no progress or Greek Cypriots took a dim view of a five-party meeting [of the two Cypriot sides, along with the guarantor nations Greece, Turkey and Britain] or if this meeting yielded no result," Eroglu told reporters.
UN Secretary-General could also decide to bring the issue to Security Council arguing that talks could get nowhere under UN goodwill mission, Eroglu said.
"What we have asked is a meeting in New York in late June or early July," Eroglu said, adding that Ban was likely to make his mind after this three-way meeting of Cypriot sides and UN.