ATHENS - A British special envoy said on Monday that Cyprus has its "best chance" of reunification following the relaunch last month of talks on ending more than three decades of division.
"This now is the best chance that Cyprus has for reunification on the basis of a bizonal, bicommunal federation," Britain's special representative for Cyprus, Joan Ryan, told reporters in Athens ahead of a visit to the divided Mediterranean island.
"We are all committed as guarantor powers to doing all that we can to support and encourage the progress of this process," she said after talks with Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis.
Under the 1960 agreements which saw the end of British colonial rule in Cyprus, Britain and Greece, along with Turkey, are guarantors of the island's independence.
Ryan was to fly on to Cyprus later on Monday for talks with Greek Cypriot leaders on Tuesday and with Turkish Cypriot leaders the following day.
Cyprus President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat announced last month that they would resume reunification talks in earnest in June following four years of stagnation under Christofias's predecessor Tassos Papadopoulos.
The island has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkish troops occupied its northern third following an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup aimed at union with Greece.
jph/kir
04/14/2008 12:09 GMT