NICOSIA (AFP) — Cyprus President Demetris Christofias said on Saturday he was standing down as leader of the communist party AKEL to focus fully on talks to reunite the long-divided east Mediterranean island.
"After 20 whole years the time has come for me to pass on the baton," he told an AKEL congress in an emotional speech.
"My obligations as president do not allow me to serve the party as general secretary to the extent that I would like and that circumstances demand."
The 62-year-old became the first communist leader to become president when he triumphed at the polls in February. He has led the island's largest party since 1988, and there is no clear favourite to succeed him.
After becoming president he reached out to the Turkish Cypriots in order to kick-start UN-brokered peace negotiations that had lain dormant since April 2004 when Greek Cypriots rejected a United Nations reunification blueprint.
Direct talks resumed on September 3 between Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat in a process the international community views as the best but also last chance for a settlement.
Christofias has said that more than three months of negotiations have produced very little in the way of tangible results, however.
"We are not as satisfied as we would like to be with the course of these negotiations," he said. "Although we hoped things would move along despite the difficulties, unfortunately those hopes have yet to be justified."
The next meeting of the rival leaders is scheduled for Monday, and is expected to be the last such session this year.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops invaded and seized its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup to unite Nicosia with Greece.
Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
