Cyprus' President Not to Sign Anything under Pressure: Spokesman

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, December 11, 2002

Cyprus' President Not to Sign Anything under Pressure: Spokesman

Cyprus's President Glafcos Clerides will not sign anything under pressure, government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said Tuesday.

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Cyprus's President Glafcos Clerides will not sign anything under pressure, government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters, Papapetrou said the president will only sign a Cyprus solution if he is convinced that it is in the interest of the people.

Earlier in the day, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's special advisor on Cyprus Alvaro de Soto handed Clerides a revised version of the UN plan, which was submitted to the two sides of Cyprus on Nov. 11.

There has been an initial assessment of the revised UN proposal on a comprehensive settlement to the Cyprus issue, the spokesman added.

A note on the revised UN proposal will be prepared for the members of the National Council, the top advisory body to President Clerides on the Cyprus issue, which will convene Tuesday evening atan extraordinary meeting.

Clerides is due to have a second meeting with de Soto on Tuesday.

"If the possibility exists for the two leaders to sign an agreement by the European Union (EU)'s Copenhagen summit on Dec. 12-13, I would repeat that we have never hidden our readiness to doso," he said.

However, if there is no agreement, the effort to find a negotiated settlement will continue, he said,

The Mediterranean island of Cyprus has remained divided into the Greek Cypriot community and Turkish Cypriot community since 1974 when Turkish troops seized the northern third of the island following a failed coup seeking union with Greece.

A team headed by de Soto has been engaging both sides in intense consultations since Friday, with a view to reaching an agreement before the end of the week when the European Union will invite Cyprus and nine other applicant countries to join the bloc in 2004.

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