ANKARA (AP) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos was warming to the idea of a new round of Cyprus peace talks.

Erdogan told reporters he discussed the issue with Papadopoulos and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Moscow on the sidelines of celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi regime.

“In our trilateral meeting with Mr Papadopoulos, Mr Annan said that the referendum was left in the past and that a new process could start,” Erdogan said upon his return from Moscow. “I saw that southern Cyprus is not against this, unlike his (Papadopoulos’s) past statements, I saw that he was positively approaching the implementation of a new process.” Erdogan said he would discuss the issue in detail when he visits the US in June. [Papadopoulos yesterday said Erdogan had “inflated” the meeting’s importance.]