Niscosia: Cyprus' president said on Thursday that
he would not seek re-election in 2013 if ongoing talks to
reunify the ethnically-split island fail.
Dimitris Christofias, a Greek Cypriot, was elected in
2008 on a campaign promise to resume stalled peace talks with
breakaway Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat. But there
has been only limited progress after 19 months of slow-moving
negotiations.
"I underline clearly: If no Cyprus settlement is reached
by the end of my first term, I will not seek a second term,"
Christofias said during a news conference in the divided
Cypriot capital.
Cyprus was divided into an internationally-recognised
Greek Cypriot south and a breakaway Turkish Cypriot north in
1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of union
with Greece.
Talat faces possible ouster in an April 18 election in
the north.
Opinion polls show him trailing to a hardliner.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, March 18, 2010, 20:27