MOSCOW - Turkish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul Thursday called Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the phone and requested an increase in efforts for a final solution on Cyprus.
Diplomatic sources said Gul called Lavrov upon the negative attitude of Russia during U.N. Security Council meetings in New York.
Lavrov in reply said good will mission of U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan should continue.
The Turkish side stated that a satisfactory response could not be taken from Russia, and noted that Russia exhibited an attitude closer to the views of the Greek Cypriot side.
Turkey wants a joint decision to be made at the U.N. Security Council's Thursday session instead of a statement, and also wants the expression of ''lifting of embargoes'' to be used instead of expression of ''softening of embargoes''.
Turkey's Ambassador in Moscow Kurtulus Taskent told a news conference on Wednesday that they wished Russia to take into consideration the political and economic relations between the two countries while developing its Cyprus policy.
(AY) 29.04.2004