President Rauf Denktaş and Greek Cypriot leader Mr.Glafcos Clerides met yester day to continue their direct talks aimed at finding a lasting solution to the Cyprus problem. The meeting at the Lefkoşa Cultural Center in the UN-controlled buffer zone took place at 16.00 hours at the presence of the UN secretary General’s Adviser on Cyprus Mr.Alvaro de Soto who has been joining the talks as an observer. This was the fifth meeting of the second round of direct talks, which started in mid-January. The next meeting is scheduled for Friday.

Mr. Alavaro De Soto will travel to Ankara and Athens next week for talks, President Denktaş said yesterday. He is also expected to go to UN headquarters in New York.

President Denktaş will receive US State Department Special Coordinator for Cyprus Mr.Thomas Weston on 21 March 2002 at 11.00 hours. The President said that Mr.Weston would receive information about the face-to-face negotiations. President Denktaş said “We will inform him about the talks and ask for his help. We will ask Mr. Weston to show that they respect the equality in a visible manner that will enable the Greek Cypriots to eliminate the illusion that they can take Cyprus and walk away"

Speaking during the commemoration ceremonies of Gaziveren and Çamlıköy resistance, President Denktaş once again reminded that if Turkey would not intervene to Cyprus in 1974 all the Turkish Cypriots would be now laying in the mass graves.

The President stressed that it is not possible to reach a settlement by forgetting what has happened in the past. President Denktaş underlined that the possible settlement should be based on sovereignty. Only by this way the Greek Cypriots would not be able to argue that they are the sole legitimate government of Cyprus. The President stressed that Turkish Cypriots have protected their rights for the cost of their lives granted by them by the International Agreements as the co founding partners of Cyprus Republic and now two states exist in Cyprus which will be a starting point to form a new partnership Republic.

According to Greek Cypriot daily Filleleftheros, EU reports claimed that South Cyprus was being used as a transit point for huge quantities of cigarette smuggling from USA destined for Iraq, in breach of the UN embargo.

South Cyprus named in lawsuit filed by the EU against tobacco manufacturers R.J.Reynolds and Phillip Morris, who were accused by the EU of breaking the UN imposed embargo on Iraq by smuggling cigarettes through Spain and South Cyprus. According to the EU reports R.J.Reynolds sent 50 billion cigarettes to South Cyprus since 1996.

Meanwhile, reports said that a Greek Cypriot living in England was wanted as one of the suspected brains behind a cigarette smuggling ring recently busted in Greece.

The Greek Cypriot newspaper Politis commented that it became a custom for South Cyprus to act as a center for each international illegal act like tobacco and drug smuggling and money laundering.

TRNC’s Islamabad representative Mr.Kemal Gökeri gave information about TRNC universities in an interview published in the magazine called "Scenario of Education".