Turkish Cypriot President Dervis Eroglu on Thursday met with European Union's top enlargement official, as part of his contacts in Brussels.

"I have renewed my call to the EU to remove economic embargo on Turkish Cyprus as the Union had promised. The EU had only worsened the situation by accepting Greek Cyprus without a settlement, and now it has to act responsibly," Eroglu told reporters after the meeting.

Eroglu said the European Commission favored a settlement to the division of the island before the year ended, adding that the Union needed to play its part to encourage the Greek Cypriot administration over a solution.

"If the Greek Cypriot administration assumes the rotating helm of the EU as planned and before we could reach any agreement, window of opportunity for a solution will close," Eroglu said.

The Greek Cypriot administration is set to take over the EU presidency for the second half of 2012.

"That would mean we would have lost 2012. The Greek Cypriots are set to vote in presidential elections in 2013, which means that that would be a lost year, too. The Turkish Cypriots cannot wait for years to get a settlement. In the end, patience has its limits," he said.

Stefan Fule, EU commissioner for enlargement, released a written statement after the meeting, saying the Union continued to support strongly efforts exerted by the two Cypriot leaders and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon to find a solution "to one of the longest-lived issues on the European territories."

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