NICOSIA - New Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat on Monday named one of his closest aides as prime minister, urging him to form a government that will work for a peace settlement with the Greek Cypriots.
Prime minister-designate Ferdi Sabit Soyer is a senior member of Talat's Republican Turkish Party (CTP) and supports a resumption of negotiations with the internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot government.
"I want to work in harmony with the government. It is my greatest desire that the new government is formed with such an understanding," Talat said in making the appointment.
Talat resigned as prime minister last week after he was elected president of the breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC).
He succeeded veteran leader Rauf Denktash, who bowed out after his hardline nationalist policies were often blamed for the failure of international efforts to end three decades of division on Cyprus.
Soyer has a 15-day period to announce his cabinet, which he said would be a coalition between the center-left CTP and the center-right Democrat Party, which have together governed the TRNC since general elections in December 2003.
The 53-year-old Soyer, a former union leader, has been a member of the TRNC parliament since 1985, except for a three-year absence between 1990 and 1993.
Turkey, the only country to recognize the TRNC, also favors resuming peace talks to resolve the Cyprus conflict, which remains a major stumbling block to Ankara's efforts to join the European Union (EU).
The last international drive to reunite the island failed in April 2004 when the Greek Cypriots voted down a UN reunification plan, even though the Turkish Cypriots gave it strong support.
The outcome ensured that the Greek Cypriots alone joined the EU on May 1.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkey occupied the island's northern third in response to an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia aimed at uniting the island with Greece.
04/25/2005 13:39 GMT