Rivals Court President Ousted in Cypriot Poll

Hours after his unexpected defeat in elections seen as critical for Cyprus's reunification, the island's no-compromise president, Tassos Papadopoulos, was being courted yesterday by his two main opponents.

Papadopoulos, 74, emerged as kingmaker last night as his rivals attempted to win his endorsement in advance of Sunday's run-off poll.

With the communist Akel party leader, Demetris Christofias, and the conservative former foreign minister Ioannis Kassoulides gaining 33.3% and 33.5% respectively in the first round, analysts said every vote would matter when Cyprus's 516,000-strong electorate votes again.

"This will be a very dynamic week in terms of lobbying and bringing the votes to one of the two candidates," Philippos Savvides, a political scientist, said in Nicosia. "This is by far the most critical election ever for the future of the Cyprus issue."

Papadopoulos's hard line approach to making concessions that could reunify Cyprus's estranged Greek and Turkish communities had previously won him popularity and, it was thought, all but assured him a second term in office.

But rejecting the British-trained barrister's autocratic style, Greek Cypriots signaled they were more open to negotiation than many had believed.

Christofias and Kassoulides have previously backed proposals to reunify Cyprus in a federation. Both had accused Papadopoulos of leading the island towards permanent partition after his campaign to reject a UN peace plan in a referendum nearly four years ago.

Turkish Cypriots, who have lived in international isolation since Ankara invaded the island in 1974, had voted for the plan.

"Tassos Papadopoulos had traded off the belief that all Greek Cypriots are nationalist when they are not," said James Ker-Lindsay, a regional analyst at Kingston University, south-west London. "This outcome will do a lot to re-establish faith in kick starting talks."

The UN recently said it would consider relaunching peace negotiations if good faith was shown by both sides.

Under Papadopoulos, Greek Cypriots had become alienated internationally with many blaming his intransigence for the failure to resolve the island's division.

Yesterday, his removal was greeted with barely disguised relief in EU capitals, including Athens, which has become frustrated with the "Cyprus problem" obstructing the improvement of its own ties with Turkey. "Christofias and Kassoulides are both men who might well engineer a solution," said one senior Greek diplomat.

With Cyprus also a major obstacle in Turkey's cherished goal of EU membership, the prospect of renewed talks, and finally a solution, has similarly been met with smiles in Turkey which, controversially, has maintained 35,000 troops on the island since 1974.