UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Wednesday a Cyprus peace agreement should be reached by the end of March if a reunited island is to join the European Union on May 1. Speaking in Brussels following a meeting with European Commission President Romano Prodi, Annan called for simultaneous referendums by the Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot communities to receive a cool response from both sides. Both the governments in Nicosia and Turkey, which has occupied the northern third of the island for the last 30 years, said they backed the idea of the resumption of negotiations using as a blueprint a plan submitted by Annan last year. Turkish-Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash regards this with disfavour.

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