As part of renewed efforts to reunite the island, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is to meet later this month with Papadopoulos, the UN spokesman has said.

Annan and Papadopoulos will meet in Paris on February 28 during the secretary-general's visit to the French capital to attend a ministerial meeting on innovative ways to finance development in poor countries.

Since mid-2005, all the parties have asked Annan to use his "good offices" again to tackle the three-decade division of the Mediterranean island. But the secretary-general has moved cautiously, consulting with various officials to test the commitment of Greek and Turkish Cypriots to make the compromises needed to finally reach a settlement. 

Asked whether there had been any significant changes that prompted Annan's upcoming meeting with Papadopoulos, Dujarric said: "This meeting should be seen as his continued consultations on the issue of Cyprus and on moving forward on the process of reuniting Cyprus, and that's as far as we'll go right now." He said the agenda will include reviewing the situation in Cyprus and discussing ways of moving forward on the process of reunification. - AP, Reuters