Talks will be moved to Geneva

PRESIDENT Clerides’ ill-health has forced the third round of settlement talks to be put back by over a month and the venue to be changed to Geneva, senior government and diplomatic sources have said.

The UN-led proximity talks are now to begin in the Swiss town on June 26.

The third round of indirect peace talks between Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash had originally been due to take place on May 23 in New York.

Postponement of the talks has been on the cards ever since Clerides was admitted to the Evangelistria clinic in Nicosia last week for an operation to remove a polyp growth from his large intestine.

Friday’s operation was a success and the 81-year-old President has been recovering well. But his doctors have made it clear there is no way, despite Clerides’ insistence otherwise, that he could travel to New York later this month.

Postponement of the talks was confirmed by the government earlier this week, but no new date had been officially announced by yesterday.

Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Sermet Atacanli told Reuters yesterday that the talks had been postponed to allow Clerides recovery time.

"We have not yet been informed of any official change or delay, but it is understood that the talks will be postponed," Atacanli said in Ankara.

The UN recorded the positions of the two sides during two earlier rounds of proximity talks, in New York in December and in Geneva in February. The third round of talks is expected to be more substantial.

Meanwhile, in Rome yesterday, Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini said he was sure Cyprus would join the EU in the block’s next wave of expansion in 2003.

Dini’s position was stated in an official announcement issued after a meeting with his Cypriot counterpart, Yiannakis Cassoulides.

Dini said a "new dynamic" had been created by the EU’s Helsinki decision, which gave Turkey candidate status and reaffirmed that Cyprus could accede even before a settlement.

"Turkey must take advantage of this new dynamic," Dini added.

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