ANKARA - EU president Finland's plans to hold meetings with Turkish and Cypriot officials fell through because they were unable to gather all parties to the problem, Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said Thursday.
"As far as I know, they (Finland) were unable to bring together all the parties to the problem," Gul told reporters here upon his return from a visit to Moscow.
"Finland strove with goodwill, but unfortunately were unable to create an environment in which to take a positive step because, unfortunately, the sides they invited did not want to participate in such a meeting," he said.
Finland, which currently holds the six-month rotating EU presidency, had invited officials from Turkey, Cyprus and the divided island's breakaway Turkish community for talks in Helsinki planned for November 5-6.
A Finnish spokesman said in Brussels Thursday that the meetings were cancelled after they proved impossible to organise.
11/02/2006 11:59 GMT