UNITED NATIONS, Nov 12: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Monday proposed ending the 28-year division of Cyprus by setting up a Swiss-style confederation with two equal component states within the European Union.

Annan presented a 10-page summary of his proposals to the United Nations security council after sending the full 150-page plan to Greek Cypriot leader Glafcos Clerides and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart, Rauf Denktash.

Annan told reporters he believed his proposals could “form the basis of a comprehensive settlement of the Cyprus problem” and said he had “broad support” from the Security Council.

Among the proposals, Cyprus would be demilitarized, but Greece and Turkey would each be allowed to station a “four-digit” contingent on the island.

Annan said he had asked Clerides and Denktash, who is recovering from surgery in New York, to reply to him within a week.

The plan defined the new Cyprus as “an indissoluble partnership, with a ‘common state’ government and two equal ‘component states’, one Greek Cypriot and one Turkish Cypriot.”

The territorial boundaries of the component states were drawn on a map annexed to the 150-page plan sent to Clerides and Denktash, but the map did not appear in the summary presented by Annan to the Security Council.

Parliament in the new Cyprus would consist of a Senate and a Chamber of Deputies, each with 48 members. Half the senators would come from each component state, while the deputies would represent the component states on a population basis.

Upon entry into force of the plan, Clerides and Denktash would become co-presidents of Cyprus for three years.

After that, the office of head of state will be vested in a presidential council of six people, elected by parliament, with a rotating presidency which neither community may hold for more than two successive 10-month terms.—AFP