ANKARA - Outgoing Turkish Cypriot prime minister Mehmet Ali Talat is expected to reveal the new coalition government for his breakaway statelet on Monday following recent elections which gave him a sound victory, his coalition partner Serdar Denktash said.
"We will submit the cabinet list to the president Monday afternoon," Denktash told Turkey's Anatolia news agency Sunday.
The new government will be a renewed alliance between Talat's Republican Turkish Party (CTP) and the Democrat Party (DP) of Serdar Denktash, who is the son of veteran Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash.
Such a partnership would give Talat a stronger government than the previous one, which lost its slim parliamentary majority shortly after the failure last year of a UN plan to reunify the island, forcing early elections.
In the February 20 vote, Talat secured 24 of the 5O seats in the parliament of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) upon pledges of reviving peace talks with the rival Greek Cypriots. The DP got six seats.
Observers see Talat's victory as a sign of the strong desire among Turkish Cypriots for a settlement, but say any fresh effort to jumpstart the peace talks on the divided island would have to wait until presidential elections in April.
Talat is expected to be a candidate in the April 17 presidential race in which Rauf Denktash, who has represented his community for four decades, will stand down.
Although Talat has so far given no indication that he intends to do so, Serdar Denktash confirmed Sunday that his coalition partner was a candidate.
"I have been unable to persuade Talat out of being a candidate for the presidency," he told Anatolia.
Talat was a strong supporter of the abortive UN plan which failed when the Greek Cypriots voted it down even though the Turkish Cypriots rallied behind it at simultaneous referenda last April.
The result meant that a divided Cyprus joined the European Union a week later.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey occupied its northern third following a Greek Cypriot coup seeking to unite the island with Greece.
The Greek Cypriots enjoy international recognition while the TRNC is recognised only by Turkey.
03/06/2005 10:52 GMT