Turkish port plan in bid to end logjam

NICOSIA - Turkey has launched a fresh bid to break the logjam over Cyprus and encourage all sides to return to United Nations-backed talks over the future of the divided Mediterranean island.

Ankara, which needs the Cyprus issue resolved in order to push on with its bid to join the European Union, said yesterday that it would open its ports to Cypriot vessels and aeroplanes in return for easing the restrictions on economically isolated Turkish Cypriots.

Turkey, the only country to back the breakaway authority in the north of Cyprus, is under heavy pressure to recognise the Greek-Cypriot Government, now a member of the 25-nation EU bloc.

In Nicosia, the Greek-Cypriot Government rejected the new proposals as "reheated food".

- INDEPENDENT