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World Bulletin / News Desk

Turkish Cypriot President Dervis Eroglu on Saturday met with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meetings.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Eroglu said Cyprus negotiations were in a gridlock after the Greek Cypriot administration assumed the rotating helm of the European Union, adding that resumption of the settlement talks were not in sight until a new Greek Cypriot leader was elected in a voting scheduled for next February to replace Demetris Christofias who announced that he would not seek re-election.

"Talks are stalled because Christofias turned down our proposal to work out a time table for settlement and hold a multilateral meeting. We hope that the one who will be elected will be in a position to take a step towards a viable and lasting settlement," Eroglu said.

Diplomatic sources close to the Eroglu-Ban meeting said the Turkish Cypriot president had briefed the UN chief about relations between the two Cypriot communities as well as on the Greek Cypriot effort for off-shore drilling for oil and gas around the island.

Sources said Eroglu presented Ban a proposal on how to explore and transport hydro-carbon resources of the island.

The proposal includes the appointment by the UN head a mediator to chair a technical committee of Turkish and Greek Cypriot envoys as well as transporting oil and gas to Europe by pipelines over Turkey.