Both sides claim victory on Cyprus

Both sides in the Cyprus peace talks claimed to be winners today after UN chief Kofi Annan presented his plan to reunite the divided island.

After 10 days of gruelling talks about the blueprint in Buergenstock, Switzerland, Turkey insisted it had won the best possible terms before Cyprus joins the European Union on 1 May.

But Greece said it had been impossible to reach an agreed solution and it was now up to the islanders to decide in a 24 April referendum.

Mr Annan presented his plan, which calls for concessions from both sides, late last night. It sought to allay Greek-Cypriot fears by including restrictions on the movement of people from their more prosperous, internationally recognised southern sector to the poorer Turkish north.

But the ethnic Greeks are now thought likely to reject this. "Unfortunately, it proved impossible to reach an agreed solution," said Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.

"We got everything we wanted," a Turkish diplomat claimed. "They lost, it's that simple. The period where only the Greek Cypriots were known to the world as Cypriots has ended."

The plan aims to unite the eastern Mediterranean island after its partition in 1974 following a Turkish invasion.