Cyprus's Greek and Turkish community leaders failed on Monday night to remove obstacles preventing the resumption of reunification negotiations.
Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades, who is also the president of the internationally recognized government of the eastern Mediterranean island, invited Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu to dinner in a bid to agree on a joint statement setting out the basic principles for a Cyprus solution.
They talked for two and a half hours in the buffer zone running through the divided Cypriot capital Nicosia but failed to break an impasse which has also defied months-long efforts by United Nations officials.
"Unfortunately there is a long way to go before negotiations can resume," said Anastasiades standing next to Eroglu.
Eroglu said he put forward proposals of his own on power sharing between the two communities and suggested that the negotiations be held directly between him and Anastasiades.
Anastasiades said, however, that he preferred consultations to continue at a lower level until agreement on a joint statement is made possible.
The United Nations had set a tentative time target to restart negotiations in October but disagreement over the basic elements of a solution prevented the representatives of the two sides to start substantial talks.
Cyprus was divided into Greek and Turkish Cypriot parts after Turkey, responding to a coup by Greek army junta officers, militarily intervened the northern part of the island in 1974.
簡明釋義：塞浦路斯的希臘族和土耳其族領導人未能在周一晚上，消除障礙，恢復統一談判。聯合國已設定的暫定重啟談判的目標時間十月內，但雙方分歧嚴重，阻止了代表開始實質性談判。塞浦路斯的土耳其族人控制基雷尼亞和法馬古斯塔的大部分及尼科西亞的一部分，一直想獨立出去，但希臘族控制的政府卻不認同。
