Sawt Falasteen - UN chief to convene new talks on divided Cyprus

However, he gave no date for the meeting, saying it was contingent on "adequate preparation", suggesting that included making progress in confidence-building measures.

Nikos Christodoulides, president of the Greek Cypriot-majority and internationally recognised Republic of Cyprus, welcomed the announcement.

He declared himself optimistic and said it was "the first time" since talks collapsed in 2017 that "the substance of the Cyprus issue was discussed".

Guterres, who leaves office at the end of the year, was on the first visit to the Mediterranean island by a UN secretary-general since 2010.

Cyprus has been split since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied the northern third in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup seeking unification with Greece.

Before the invasion, Turkish Cypriots made up around a fifth of the population of the former Ottoman and British colony where there had been years of inter-ethnic tension and violence.

The UN chief spoke after holding bilateral and trilateral meetings with the rival Cypriot leaders.

"I have the consensus of both sides and the guarantors to move into a 5-plus-1 meeting but with adequate preparation," he said of a format involving the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders with representatives of Greece, Turkey and Britain.

The trio were made guarantor powers for Cyprus under the treaty that granted it independence in 1960.

- EU involvement -

Guterres said he wanted to see progress in confidence-building measures before the meeting "because I don't want to have more 5-plus-1 meetings without results".

In March last year, the two sides agreed to measures including new crossing points on the UN-patrolled buffer zone and a joint solar farm.

At the time, they were seen as the largest breakthrough since the 2017 collapse of talks, but there has since been only limited progress on implementation.

Guterres said the deadline for the meeting was "not defined but we are going to work together as fast... as possible".

Christodoulides, however, insisted that the renewed talks were not contingent on confidence-building.

He attributed his optimism to a guarantee that the new talks would pick up where the previous round left off and of greater EU involvement.

"We are not starting from zero -- the negotiating acquis will be utilised. That is extremely important," he said.

Meanwhile, the European Union, he said, was willing to get involved in the areas of negotiation with the least progress and wanted better relations with Turkey.

"We all know -- and this is not our assessment, we have heard it directly from Turkish officials -- that they are interested in seeing positive developments in EU-Turkey relations."

The Turkish Cypriots would be led in the talks by the president of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, Tufan Erhurman.

Erhurman was elected in November on a platform of unifying Cyprus, defeating the incumbent Turkey-backed Ersin Tatar who favoured formally partitioning the island.

On Tuesday, local media reported, Erhurman told Guterres "we strongly support and welcome your efforts".

Today Cyprus comprises the TRNC, which declared independence in 1983 but is only recognised by Ankara, and the Republic of Cyprus, an EU member that controls the island's majority Greek Cypriot south.

E.Qaddoumi--SF-PST