Newly-appointed UN special envoy Alexander Downer arrived on Sunday for contacts with rival Cypriot leaders ahead of a September process aimed at reunifying the Mediterranean island.
"All of us at the UN are looking forward to helping in any way we can with the process that, as the secretary general (Ban Ki-moon) pointed out, made an important step forward on Friday," Downer told reporters at Larnaca airport. "We have been very pleased to see that, and the secretary general was delighted to see that," he added.
On Friday, President Demetris Christofias, the Greek Cypriot leader, and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat set September 3 as the date to begin direct negotiations on ending the island's 34-year-old division.
Downer, the 56-year-old former Australian foreign minister, is making his first trip to the island since being appointed as UN special advisor for Cyprus on July 12.
He is tasked with succeeding where many have failed before him-navigating both sides towards a long elusive peace deal. Downer is to criss-cross the UN-controlled cease-fire line to hold separate meetings with Christofias and Talat on Tuesday before leaving the next day. He is expected to return to launch the much-anticipated talks in early September.
An opinion poll published in the Greek Cypriot daily Politis on Sunday showed that 75 percent of Greek Cypriots were in favour of direct reunification talks and solidly behind Christofias.
The United Nations, European Union, Washington and London have hailed the decision to revive peace negotiations and pledged full support for the reunification talks. In February, Christofias was elected president on a platform of reviving reunification talks which went nowhere under his hard-line predecessor Tassos Papadopoulos.
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