President Mehmet Ali Talat yesterday (27 March) separately received the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative on Cyprus, the UNFICYP Chief of Mission, Michael Moller, and the US Ambassador to Nicosia, Ronald Schlicher at his house in Kyrenia.

Speaking after the meeting, the Under-Secretary of the TRNC Presidency Raşit Pertev reiterating that the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had sent a letter to the TRNC Presidency regarding his meeting with Papadopoulos in Paris, said Moller had informed them in detail about the Annan-Papadopoulos meeting and this was evaluated.

Pertev stressed that the Greek Cypriot side had reflected the Annan-Papadopoulos meeting as the "Paris Agreement", but from the UN Secretary-General's letter and the outcome of the Moller meeting it had become clear this was just a routine meeting and there was no "Paris Agreement".

Indicating that during the meeting the issue of the gathering of the technical committees was also taken up, Pertev said the Turkish Cypriot side's commitment to what was agreed on this issue before the Paris meeting had been brought to Moller's attention. He said the Turkish Cypriot side had emphasized, first to the UN Secretary-General and then Moller the importance of dealing with the Cyprus issue in a comprehensive manner and not bit-by-bit.

Continuing, he said he had conveyed to Moller that he thought the approach to settle the issue partially was just a delaying tactic and a waste of time, and that it was vital to sit at the negotiating table and reach a comprehensive settlement on the basis of the Annan plan. He added that a general evaluation was also made during the meeting with Moller.

Asked a question about the remark made by Papadopoulos that he could discuss the missing persons issue with President Talat, Pertev said the President was ready to meet with Papadopoulos but because the missing persons issue was a humanitarian issue they were against politisizing the issue.

In a statement issued by the Turkish Ministry of Transport inidcating that permission was not granted for Greek Cypriot registered planes to directly fly into Turkish airspace, it was stated that permission was only granted for planes registered from third countries to use Turkish airspace only for scheduled and chartered flghts.

Reminding that Turkish airspace had been closed to the Greek Cypriot side since 1974, the statement said:

"The flights in question have been evaluated within the framework of principles that have been outlined by our Foreign Ministry since 23 May 2001. According to this, permission is not granted for Greek Cypriot registered planes to directly use Turkish airspace and transporting passengers and cargo between the Greek Cypriot administration and Turkey is also forbidden.

Apart from this, permission is only granted for registered planes from third countries to use our airspace in order to transport transit passengers and not cargo on scheduled and chartered flights to the Greek Cypriot administration".