After a year of deadlock in United Nations-sponsored negotiations between the president of the Rep. of Cyprus Glafcos Clerides and unrecognized Turkish-Cypriot enclave, Rauf Denktash a new proposal has been put on the table.

The UN plan for the reunification of Cyprus was handed simultaneously to government of the Greek-Cypriot-led Republic of Cyprus, the leadership of occupied Turkish northern Cyprus and the administrations in Athens and Ankara.

The document drafted by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has been described by some sources as a make or break solution to the 28-year division. It has been accepted by the Greek-Cypriot government, and Athens authorities as a basis for negotiation.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the leader of Turkish majority AK party, has appealed for more time to consider the plan, while Denktash has pleaded ill health from a New York hospital.

The proposal as described by UN special envoy to Cyprus Alvaro De Soto as "a rather long and complex document," was still under discussion in late November.

The full contents of the 150-page document have not yet been released to the public, but GreeceNow outlines the main points of the plan as reported in the international media.

Main points

- A single state comprised of two equal components in a dissoluble union

- A single international entity offering a single Cypriot citizenship

- Territorial adjustments reducing the Turkish Cypriot component of the island from 28.5% from 36%

- The return of 85,000 Greek-Cypriot refugees to their homes in the Turkish occupied north of the island

- Cyprus to join the European Union and maintain special links to Greece and Turkey

- A two-chamber parliament, each containing 48 members

- A six-member presidential council proportional to the population of the two states, with a 10-month rotating presidency

- Demilitarisation of the island, reinforced by an embargo on arms imports

- Constitutional safeguards for civil and minority rights

Click here for full text of published Foundation Agreement