LEFKOSA - United Nations (U.N.) Secretary General Kofi Annan's Special Envoy to Cyprus Alvaro de Soto will start to meet with sides in Cyprus separately as of Monday by changing the procedure in Cyprus negotiations which had started between Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and Greek Cypriot side on February 19 in order to find a fair and lasting solution to Cyprus issue before May 1 on basis of Annan plan.
Therefore, there will not be a meeting between sides today.
Sources told A.A correspondent that De Soto spoke with TRNC President Rauf Denktas and Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos by phone and said that he wanted to meet with the two sides separately.
To this end, De Soto will meet with sides separately instead of the meeting expected to take place between sides at 10.00 a.m.
De Soto will meet with Denktas at 5.30 p.m.
In the 14th meeting held as part of ongoing Cyprus negotiations last Friday, De Soto asked the sides to give him a list in which they wrote the changes they wanted in Annan plan.
De Soto will take up this list in his separate meetings with sides, and try to start give-and-take process, and try to progress in the process.
Alvaro de Soto will meet with sides separately as of Monday, and there will not be any need for a collective meeting.
Negotiations in Lefkosa will continue till March 22. Issues on which sides can't agree will try to be solved in the quartet meeting that Turkey and Greece will also attend.
U.N. Secretary General Annan will decide on issues on which compromise can't be reached in quartet meetings, and the text to be formed will be voted in a referendum held synchronously in the Turkish and Greek Cypriot sides on April 20.
(BRC-AÖ) 15.03.2004