Cyprus talks seen extending into 2009

Negotiations to reunify Cyprus are expected to continue into 2009, a U.N. envoy said on Thursday, saying that time was needed to resolve the decades-old conflict hampering Turkey's bid to join the EU.
Leaders of the estranged Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities started talks in September and the Turkish Cypriot side had earlier in the process expressed hope that a deal could be brokered by the end of the year.
The eastern Mediterranean island was split after a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief, Greek-inspired coup and clashes between the two sides.
United Nations envoy Alexander Downer said he did not want to put a time frame on a deal, which will have to be approved by Cypriots in separate simultaneous referendums.
"I wouldn't put a time on it," Downer, a former Australian foreign minister, said after meeting Greek Cypriot leader Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
"The important thing is that they maintain momentum … I think setting themselves up with official deadlines (for a deal) will make the process more difficult rather than easier," Downer told reporters.
Negotiations have so far been almost exclusively focussed on power-sharing formulas. Both sides agree to a settlement based on a federation, but there are disagreements on how it would work and the degree of authority each side would have in a future central government.
As a federation, the island would be comprised of two areas where each community would have large degrees of autonomy over local affairs, but be linked by a central administration.
"It is a longstanding problem, it has many different facets and you wouldn't expect it to be solved overnight. It will take time, I think that obviously the process will go into 2009 but as long as the momentum is sustained they can achieve a good solution in the end," Downer said.
Turkey started EU entry talks in 2005, though negotiations have been hobbled by its refusal to normalise relations with Cyprus, whose Greek Cypriots have represented the island in Brussels since 2004.
Ankara has stationed 30,000 troops in north Cyprus, a breakaway Turkish Cypriot state.