Greece Urges Turkey to Move on Cyprus Peace Deal

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras on Friday called on Turkey to allow stalled U.N.-led talks to resume by removing tensions in the east Mediterranean over energy spoils.

After talks with Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades, he said Athens could neither "ignore nor reward Turkish provocations".

"We hope that Turkey will reconsider its stance allowing for the restart of negotiations," Samaras told reporters.

"We expect concrete indications that Turkey truly believes in reunifying the island and not simply seek the failure of the process as a guise to promote approaches outside the framework of the decisions of the United Nations," he added.

But Samaras said "unfortunately such indications so far do not exist".

Since October 20 a Turkish survey vessel has encroached Cyprus's exclusive economic zone off the island's southern coast, according to Nicosia.

Ankara had issued a notice that a Turkish seismic vessel would carry out a survey until December 30 in the same area where the Italian-Korean energy consortium ENI-Kogas is operating.

Nicosia is unhappy that Ankara is determined to search for oil and gas in the same region where the Cypriot government has already licensed exploratory drills in an exclusive economic zone.

Turkish troops invaded and occupied the northern third of Cyprus in 1974 in response to an Athens-engineered coup aimed at uniting it with Greece.

Ankara opposes the Cypriot government's exploitation of offshore energy reserves before a deal is reached to solve the decades-long division of the east Mediterranean island.

Last month Cyprus suspended its participation in U.N.-led peace talks launched in February.

Despite the United Nations calling on both sides to return to the negotiating table Anastasiades said he will not resume peace talks under "Turkish threats and blackmail".

Ankara opposes Nicosia's exploitation of offshore hydrocarbon reserves before any peace deal.

Both Anastasiades and Samaras will attend a tripartite summit in Cairo on Saturday where they will discuss closer energy cooperation with Egypt.