NICOSIA, July 1: Rival Cypriot leaders made progress on two of the key stumbling blocks in efforts to reunify the island on Tuesday but decided to hold one more meeting before launching fully-fledged peace talks.

President Demetris Christofias, the Greek Cypriot leader, and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mehmet Ali Talat reached agreement in principle on the issues of citizenship and sovereignty in a reunified island, in a joint statement released after four-and-a-half hours of talks.

The two leaders “discussed the issues of single sovereignty and citizenship and they agreed in principle,” said the joint statement, read out by the talks’ host, UN chief of mission Taye-Brook Zerihoun.

“They agreed to discuss the details of the implementation during the fully-fledged negotiations.

“They agreed to meet on July 25 when they will undertake the final review of the working groups and technical committees” before the launch of fully-fledged talks, the statement added.

The citizenship issue has been a major concern for the Greek Cypriots who have sought to limit how many mainland Turks who have settled in the north of the island since Turkey’s 1974 invasion should be naturalised.

According to the results of a 2006 census in the breakaway Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, 34,370 people, or 13.4 per cent of the population, hold both TRNC and Turkish citizenship while around 70,500 people, or 27.5 per cent, were categorised as Turkish citizens.

The sovereignty issue in turn has been a key concern for the Turkish Cypriots who have demanded that the bizonal bicommunal federation foreseen in the UN-brokered peace talks must be an entirely new creation.

The Greek Cypriots by contrast have argued that it should be a continuation of their Cyprus Republic, which is currently recognised by every government except Ankara.

UN spokesman Jose Diaz hailed the progress made in the meeting.

“It’a positive statement and moves us forward on what is seen as a complicated issue,” he said. —AFP