Talks on Cyprus Security Pact Resume in Switzerland

Talks to reunify Cyprus resumed in Switzerland on Wednesday, with rival sides and key foreign powers seeking a pact on the divided island's future security. 

The United Nations-backed negotiations in the alpine resort town of Mont Pelerin included Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot representatives as well as officials from Ankara, Athens and former colonial power Britain. 

Those parties were also in Geneva last week trying to reach a deal to end one of the world's longest running political crises.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded in response to an Athens-inspired coup seeking union with Greece.

Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci have been holding direct talks at various locations for nearly two years on how to forge a unified, two-zone federation. 

The larger group, meeting now in Mont Pelerin, is focused on reforming Cyprus's so-called "guarantor power" agreement, a 1960 deal that gives Britain, Greece and Turkey the right to intervene to defend the island's sovereign integrity. 

There is general consensus that the guarantor power system needs to change, although the fate of some 30,000 Turkish troops deployed on the Turkish Cypriot side remains an obstacle, with Ankara insisting last week they will not be withdrawn. 

Over three days of talks in Mont Pelerin, technical experts are trying to craft ideas for a new security system that can be weighed by senior political leaders. 

The goal is "to produce a working document that enables the continuation" of higher-level talks, Cyprus government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides told reporters in Nicosia.

Addressing the parliament in Athens, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said Greece was pursuing a deal "without backing away from our positions."

Greece, like Britain, has said it was happy to do away with the guarantor power arrangement but has insisted the Turkish military's "occupation" of Cyprus end. 

Despite Ankara's hard line, Akinci last week offered a conciliatory tone, voicing commitment to a solution that satisfies all sides. 

The U.N.'s Cyprus envoy Espen Barth Eide is due to brief the Security Council on January 23 with a progress update, his spokesman told AFP.