Talks focus on executive

NEGOTIATIONS on the Cyprus problem continued yesterday between President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, focusing on the executive and legal authority of a central state.

The Cyprus News Agency (CNA) said the territorial issue would be discussed during the next two meetings, before Clerides and Denktash meet UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York on October 3 and 4.

The UN Secretary-General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus Alvaro de Soto will be flying to Athens and Ankara for meetings with the Foreign Ministers of both countries prior to the New York talks.

Talks between the two leaders have been going on since mid-January, but progress has been slow and the two sides are under pressure to reach a solution prior to the island’s accession to the EU. The island is next month expected to be recommended for the next wave of expansion.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.