March 7, 2003	Friday	Muharram 3, 1424

ANKARA, March 6: Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash reiterated on Thursday that he would reject a United Nations peace plan for Cyprus and seek big changes in it — though UN officials say there is no more room for revisions.

Denktash told the Turkish parliament that the division of land proposed by the UN — reducing the amount of territory under Turkish Cypriot control — was “unbalanced and unjust”.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has invited the Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot leaders to The Netherlands on March 10 for a final chance to reach agreement on the plan.

“The secretary-general, presumably so he didn’t go home empty handed, said come to The Hague even if you are going to say no,” Denktash told the parliament of his main sponsor.

“That is how we will go to The Hague, but we will go strengthened as a result of the talks in Ankara,” Denktash said. “We go with goodwill and we will seek ways to change this plan. God willing we will find them.”

UN officials say there is no further room for revision of the peace deal, which aims to prevent the European Union admitting a divided island in 2004.

Denktash earlier met senior Turkish officials to lay out a common position ahead of the talks in The Hague, and Turkey, backing his stand, said afterwards that the UN peace plan was “far from meeting the expectations of the Turkish side”.

The island has been divided along ethnic lines since Turkey invaded in 1974, in response to a Greek Cypriot coup that Ankara saw as a threat to the lives of ethnic Turks on the island. Denktash’s administration controls about one-third of Cyprus.—Reuters