Within the framework of talks to achieve a Cyprus settlement before 1 May 2004, in last Friday’s talks (February 20), while issues such as the places of the new central government’s buildings, judges and technical committees were taken up, despite the requests of the Turkish Cypriot delegation the principle issues still couldn’t be discussed.

Speaking on his return from the negotiations, President Denktas said as a result of a public Greek Cypriot holiday today (February 23), the negotiations would resume tomorrow (February 24).

Pointing out that on the issue of the central government’s buildings, both parties would each appoint a representative, the President said, at this stage, an old building at the Lefkosa International Airport was being considered and the Turkish Cypriot side proposed that the new buildings to be build should be in the Ledra Palace area.

Referring to the issue of the judges, the President said, both parties would appoint three representatives each and it was agreed that three foreign judges would also be appointed.

Explaining that the Turkish Cypriot side had proposed to take up the Annan Plan, page by page, and highlight those issues were agreement was reached and put to one side issues where agreement could not be reached, which would be discussed in the second week, President Denktas said the reaction to this proposal was to the effect that, "Denktas want to re-evaluate the whole Plan".

Responding to news reports to the effect that the UN General Secretariat, together with the USA, had initiated studies to produce the fourth version of the Annan Plan, TRNC Prime Minister, Mehmet Ali Talat, said: "At this stage, there is no such study".

Speaking to the Cyprus Turkish News Agency correspondent, Prime Minister Talat said there might be studies to make some changes to the Annan Plan, but not at this stage. He said this study would be possible after progress had been achieved and both parties had put forward their positions in the negotiation process. Prime Minister Talat added that he didn’t believe the UN Secretary-General would make a proposal at this stage.

According to the results of an opinion poll carried out by the Communications Services Bureau (CSB) Ltd. in South Cyprus amongst 800 Greek Cypriots over the age of 18 between 16-18 February 2004, 61 per cent of Greek Cypriots said if a referendum was carried out today, they would say ‘no’.

The Greek Cypriot daily ‘Simerini’ reported that, unless modifications were made to the Annan Plan, while 61 per cent of Greek Cypriots would say ‘no’, 67 per cent believed that in its present form the Annan Plan did not provide a functional and viable solution to the Cyprus issue.

The Greek Cypriot daily ‘Simerini’ reported that technicians from the French MBDA company visited South Cyprus in order to increase the range of the Mistral anti-aircraft missiles belonging to the Greek Cypriot National Guard from 5 kilometres to 6.4 kilometres.

The daily reported that the Greek Cypriot Defence Ministry announced that the cost of upgrading these missiles was 30 million Cyprus Pounds and the relevant agreement on this issue was implemented. It said that as a result of a pre-payment of 8 million Cyprus Pounds being paid, 6 technicians from the French company went to South Cyprus and it will take them approximately two months to complete their work.

Meanwhile, the Greek Cypriot Defence Ministry has also enforced another agreement whereby the range of the Aspide missiles will be increased from 13 kilometres to 16 kilometres.