UN may take over ports to solve Cypriot rift

A plan to transfer authority over northern Cypriot ports to the UN has emerged from frantic diplomatic efforts to resolve a stand-off between the EU and Turkey.

The move, being canvassed by EU officials, is designed to help avoid a breakdown in talks over Ankara's bid to join the EU. But it could also help to heal the 30-year rift over the divided Mediterranean island.

The crisis stems from the EU's insistence that Turkey lift a ban on Greek Cypriot-registered ships and planes entering its ports and airports. Ankara has refused to do so unless there is an easing of the economic blockade on northern Cyprus, which is not internationally recognised.

Under the proposals being discussed, the UN could control key northern Cypriot ports, such as Famagusta. Goods would be shipped with UN paperwork and customs declarations, rather than those of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus - which are anaethema to the official Cypriot government in Nicosia. The new arrangements could give Turkey enough of a concession to lift a ban on Greek Cypriot ships and planes.

Detailed proposals concerning control of ports have yet to be put forward and the Cypriot government is likely to be suspicious. It could come under pressure from other EU member states not to obstruct the plan.

One EU diplomat confirmed that UN control of Turkish Cypriot ports is seen as a potential solution to the looming crisis with Ankara. The issue is coming to a head because Turkey is being threatened with suspension of its EU membership talks in the autumn unless ports are opened to all EU vessels.

Earlier this year the EU's commissioner for enlargement, Olli Rehn, warned of an imminent "train crash" in Europe's relations with Turkey, demanding that it implement its promise to extend a customs union to all EU member states, including Cyprus, which joined the bloc in 2004.

But Turkey points to the EU's failure to honour a political pledge to ease the plight of the northern Cypriots. That was given after the north of the island voted in a referendum to accept a UN plan to reunite the island, which was divided in 1974 when Turkey invaded after an attempted coup in favour of union with Athens.

In Ankara the mood is increasingly hardline and the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has little room for manoeuvre in the run-up to Turkish elections.

With many politicians in Germany, France and Austria hostile to Turkish membership of the EU, many Turks believe that they will never be allowed to join the bloc. EU officials are concerned that the pace of internal reform in Turkey is slowing. Formal membership talks with Ankara began in October last year after the UK, which then held the presidency of the EU, managed to overcome objections from several countries led by Austria.

But earlier this year the negotiations were almost derailed when the Cyprus issue reared its head.