Ban and the leaders discuss meeting in June

UN SECRETARY-General Ban Ki-moon would like the next meeting with the two leaders to be in June due to the lack of progress in the negotiations.

Ban hopes conditions will be more favourable by then, an announcement from the presidential palace said.

The development came after Ban spoke with President Demetris Christofias by phone on Sunday evening. He also spoke with Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu.

According to the announcement from the Greek Cypriot side, Christofias told Ban that his predictions concerning the negotiations had been right and that ”the stance of the Turkish Cypriot side and Turkey had not been at all helpful, but on the contrary it has been problematic.”

The statement said Christofias “assured the UN Secretary-General that he would continue to work ”with good will in the negotiations for progress but for this to happen there must be good will from both sides.”

In the north, Eroglu, citing ‘two states and two peoples”, told reporters yesterday there had been no progress on any chapter, other than the economy, and there was little hope for a settlement.

A statement from the UN was slightly more optimistic. “In both conversations, the Secretary-General noted that there had been some convergences, particularly in the economy chapter and in the chapter on EU matters,” it said. “However, he said, there has been no significant progress in the other chapters>’

The UN statement said Ban was aware that the election period was approaching and he encouraged both leaders to redouble their efforts to build confidence on all fronts.

“In this regard, the Secretary-General proposed convening another meeting with both leaders in mid-June to review developments,” said the statement.

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