NICOSIA - President Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu, will be focusing on the issue of property during their next two meetings in the context of the UN-led direct talks to solve the Cyprus problem.

This is what the Special Advisor of the Secretary-General Alexander Downer has stated to the press following his a meeting with President Christofias, which lasted more than an hour.

In his statements, Downer said during the meeting they had discussed the resumption of negotiations following the meeting in Greentree, New York, between the two leaders and UN Secretary General Ban ki-moun.

He reminded that the leaders had already their first meeting last week, while a new meeting is scheduled for tomorrow and another one would be taking place next week.

He noted that for the next two meetings, the discussion between Christofias and Eroglu will focus on the property issue.

UN top envoy on Cyprus reiterated that “this is a Cypriot-owned and a Cypriot-led process and ultimately the decisions will have to be made by the two sides on not only convergences they may or may not reach, but on the way forward”.

“We can only help and support them”, he added.

He continued by saying that following the Greentree meeting, the leaders have to focus on the way forward, noting that they will be talking about Property “certainly for the next two meetings and perhaps beyond”.

“I think this is a constructive way to begin”, as he said.

Asked whether the leaders will complete the discussion on the property and then discuss the other chapters, Downer said that this is up to leaders to decide, adding that “certainly they want to discuss the property issue for the time being and at some point, they will need to go back to the other core issues, the executive and citizenship questions”.

“At this stage they want to concentrate on the property issue”, he reiterated.

Downer also said that UN Secretary-General would prepare a report for the Security Council within the next two weeks, noting that “we will provide some input from here for that”.

He added that at the end of March, he would prepare a report on the negotiation process to be directly handed to UN Secretary General .

Asked about the frequency of the meetings and whether they will take place once a week, Downer said that at the moment the plan of the two leaders is to meet once a week, expressing the view that this “makes pretty good sense”.

(CNA)