Cyprus urges Turkey to face up to responsibilities

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades on Saturday urged Turkey to live up to its responsibilities and help to reunify the divided island when crucial peace talks resume next month in Switzerland.

Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akinci are to hold talks in Geneva from January 9 after negotiations broke down last month.

If all goes well they will be joined on January 12 by the guarantor powers of Cyprus - Britain, Greece and Turkey.

The talks "will be the first time that Turkey will be brought face to face with its own responsibilities," Anastasiades said in a televised New Year's message.

Turkey "will have to demonstrate whether its public rhetoric about wanting a solution to the Cyprus problem will be transformed into a specific proposal," he said.

Any such proposal must "respect international legality and be consistent...