UNITED NATIONS - United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday called for the extension of the mandate of UN peacekeepers on the island of Cyprus for six months.
In the previous six months Cyprus was "calm," Annan said in a statement.
However "in the absence of a viable political process, the distrust between the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot side has persisted, as has the military posture and the concomitant perception of threat," Annan said.
Given this situation "I continue to believe that the presence of UNFICYP (the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus) on the island remains necessary for the maintenance of the ceasefire and to foster conditions conducive to a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem," Annan said.
The current mandate for the UN force on Cyprus, first established in 1964, expires on June 15. The force has 870 soldiers and 50 civilian police.
Cyprus has been divided along community lines since 1974 when Turkey invaded the northern third pf the island in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup in Nicosia aimed at union with Greece.
On June 2 UN special envoy Kieran Prendergast wound up the Cyprus leg of a regional diplomatic offensive to consider a possible restart of talks to reunify the island.
He held a series of separate meetings with Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
Prendergast's diplomatic initiative comes more than a year after a UN plan to end partition failed when Greek Cypriots voted it down in a referendum although it was overwhelmingly supported by Turkish Cypriots.
Prendergast, the UN undersecretary general for political affairs, is scheduled to meet with Annan on Tuesday to report on his trip.
06/06/2005 23:58 GMT