Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos disagreed sharply with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat in Wednesday's talks on the best way forward to resolve the island's 33-year division, government spokesman Vasilis Palmas said.
"It's clear there is a difference of opinion. That is a fact," he told reporters.
Palmas revealed that Papadopoulos had proposed to Talat that they meet again, next week, for one last push to break the deadlock, but said the Turkish Cypriot leader had declined.
"Then President Papadopoulos proposed a date in October, but Talat reserved the right to reply."
In separate press conferences Wednesday, the two leaders had spelled out their differences over the way forward after Papadopoulos led Greek Cypriot voters in rejecting a UN reunification plan in 2004.
Papadopoulos made clear he considered a twin-track process, agreed by the two leaders at their last meeting in July 2006, to be vital to preparing effective talks on the substantive issues involved in reuniting the island.
He warned that any short-circuiting of the preparatory committees agreed then would "not speed up the process, but lead us quickly to the realization that we have reached deadlock."
But Talat, who led Turkish Cypriots in supporting the 2004 reunification plan by a wide margin, countered that, after more than a year, not a single committee envisaged in last year's agreement had been established.
"It is not clear whether this process will last 14 months, 14 years, or 140 years," he said.
"We proposed an accelerated preparation period. Unfortunately, our proposal was not accepted."
Talat denied accusations by the Cyprus president that what he was seeking was a "variation" from last year's agreement.
"Our proposal was aimed at accelerating the 8 July proccess, disciplining it, and turning it into a process that can yield results," he said.
Asked whether Papadopoulos had met him merely because he faces a tough reelection battle in February against two challengers seen as more supportive of reunification efforts, Talat said he had seen no harm in meeting.
But he added that he had made any further meeting conditional on a commitment to progress, saying that renewed failure to make headway would be harmful for both communities.
The United Nations, which hosted Wednesday evening's meeting, has maintained a peacekeeping force on the island ever since ethnic unrest first broke out in the winter of 1963 to 1964.
Cyprus has been divided along ethnic lines since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded its northern third following a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.
The Greek Cypriot vote in April 2004 meant Cyprus joined the European Union, a week afterward, still a divided island.
EU law does not extend to the breakaway north of the island, which is recognized only by Ankara, meaning that Turkish Cypriots are denied the full benefits of the island's membership in the European bloc.
© 2007 Agence France-Presse
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