Greek Cypriot police have discovered the corpse of former president Tassos Papadopoulos, three months after its macabre theft shocked residents of the Mediterranean island.

Police said the corpse, found at a cemetery on the outskirts of the capital, Nicosia, after a tip-off late on Monday, had been identified by family members and subjected to DNA tests.

"We have received the DNA test results and the body is that of the late president," police spokesman Michalis Katsounodos told Reuters.

Papadopoulos died in December 2008, and his body was stolen last December, a day before the anniversary of his death.

Those held responsible for the crime ranged from Balkan crime gangs looking for a ransom to political opponents of the former president, who led Greek Cyprus from 2003 to early 2008.

Local newspapers reported on Tuesday that police suspected a criminal gang of snatching the body.

The corpse was found in a grave in a cemetery close to where Papadopoulos was initially buried, and is believed to have been placed there recently, police said.

Papadopoulos led the Greek Cypriots to the rejection of a United Nations reunification blueprint for ethnically divided Cyprus in 2004, shortly before Greek Cyprus joined the European Union.

Reuters