Greek Cypriot leader warns peace deal cannot serve Turkey's interests

Turkish and foreign leaders are "misled" if they believe any peace deal tailored to their wishes will succeed, Christofias was quoted by AP as saying.

Christofias made the remark Friday after returning from an official visit to Russia.

He rebuffed Turkish Cypriot criticism that the trip undermined ongoing peace talks with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.

Talat criticized on Thursday a memorandum of understanding signed between the Greek Cypriot administration and Russia.

Greek Cypriots and Russia have signed a joint declaration to enhance bilateral relations on the political, economic and technical level, reiterating their common position for a comprehensive just and viable settlement in Cyprus, following talks between Christofias and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Moscow on Wednesday.

"Signing such unilateral agreements with countries which knew nothing about the state of the current talks on the island will not help the negotiations process," Talat told a round table meeting on Cyprus at the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey.

"Such agreements simply do not exist and they have no binding power on our part, and they do not have an effect on the solution of the Cyprus problem," he was quoted by the Anatolian Agency as saying.

He said such "a wrongful attitude" of the Greek Cypriot administration only eroded the principles and foundations the Turkish and Greek Cypriot sides had established.

Talat and his Greek Cypriot counterpart Christofias met on Monday for the 9th time in the buffer zone in Nicosia under the full-fledged talks aiming at finding a permanent solution to the Cyprus issue.

Cyprus has been divided since 1964 when Turkish Cypriots were forced to withdraw into enclaves.

The launch of negotiations marked the first major push for peace since the failure of a U.N. reunification plan in 2004, which was approved by Turkish Cypriots but overwhelmingly rejected by the Greek Cypriots.

Despite eight face-to-face meetings, the two sides have made little tangible progress.