On the sixth day of the Cyprus talks in Burgenstock, Switzerland, the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders met with the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, last night (28 March).

During the meeting, the basic issues were discussed and the two sides conveyed their opinions to the Secretary-General prior to the presentation of the new version of the Annan Plan, which is expected to be today (29 March).

Meanwhile, starting from today (29 March), the Secretary-General will also meet with EU Enlargement Commissioner, Gunther Verheugen, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis in Burgenstock.

Within the framework of the ongoing Cyprus talks in Switzerland, the UN Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, in a meeting today (29 March) with the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides, Turkey and Greece, presented the final version of his plan. Speaking to the press before the meeting, the head of the TRNC delegation, Prime Minister Mehmet Ali Talat, said they hoped that the final version of the Annan Plan would overcome the concerns of the Turkish Cypriot side. He said they didn’t expect any changes regarding the map and had received assurances that territorial concessions would not be made in exchange for limiting the number of Greek Cypriots returning to the north.

Although the basis of the plan is made up of 150 pages, after the laws prepared by the technical committees have been included in, it is stated that the final version could be approximately nine thousand pages.

Pointing out that it was expected the final map would also be presented to the two sides together with the new and final version of the Annan Plan, Prime Minister Talat, referring to related news reports that in exchange for reducing the number of Greek Cypriots returning to the north, 28-29 per cent of the territory envisaged to be left to the Turkish Cypriot side in the final map could be reduced, said this was not expected by the Turkish Cypriot side. He said he didn’t think the map would change and wasn’t expecting any changes to be made to territorial percentages.

Explaining that the UN had requested a written guarantee regarding the referendum, Prime Minister Talat said: "The TRNC parliament has already ratified the referendum law. Is there a stronger guarantee than this?"

Speaking during a press conference organized last night (28 March), the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Serdar Denktas, pointing out that the arrival of the Turkish and Greek Prime Ministers in Burgenstock for the Cyprus talks would have psychological effects, said after the presentation of the Annan Plan’s final draft version it would be difficult to make much more changes.