UNITED NATIONS, Feb 13: Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders on Friday accepted a UN plan for reaching a deal on reunifying Cyprus before its May 1 entry into the European Union , a crucial breakthrough capping three decades of failed diplomacy over the Mediterranean island.

The agreement crowned three days of negotiations in New York in which UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan pressed the leaders to demonstrate their will to resolve the impasse on the island, split into ethnic Greek and Turkish enclaves since 1974.

"Following three days of meetings and consultations, I am pleased to announce that the parties have committed to negotiations in good faith on the basis of my plan," a beaming Annan said at a news conference.

But all sides warned of the potential pitfalls ahead. "There is still a lot of work to do. It is not all over yet. We must all be very careful. For a lasting peace, the realities of the island must be taken into account," Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul told reporters in Ankara.

The stakes could not be higher for both Cyprus and Turkey. Without a settlement, Cyprus would enter the European Union on May 1 as a divided island and be represented only by the Greek Cypriot government.

This would deepen the isolation of the Turkish Cypriots and could derail Turkey's own bid to open entry talks with the EU early next year.

Frustrated after talks extended into the early morning hours of Friday without an agreement, Mr Annan had asked the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south and the Turkish Cypriot north to either sign or reject his page-and-a-half plan for the conduct of the final negotiations.

His goal was to convince Greek Cypriot leader Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash to commit in advance to submitting the results of those negotiations to separate referendums in the north and south on April 21.

BARRAGE OF DIPLOMACY: The talks had deadlocked mainly over the Greek Cypriot side's insistence on bringing European Union experts into the negotiation process, a proposal the Turkish Cypriot side strongly opposed.-Reuters