ANKARA (AFP) – Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat yesterday called for fixing a date to start full-fledged negotiations aimed at reunifying long-divided Cyprus.

Talat, who heads the Turkish-occupied north of the island, said he wished for his upcoming meeting with Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos to result in a decision to revive peace negotiations, which have been stalled since 2004.

“The dialogue should become permanent. We want a date to be determined to start full-fledged talks for a solution,” he said in an interview with Turkey’s NTV news channel.

Talat and Papadopoulos, head of the internationally recognized Cyprus government in the south, are to meet on September 5 in the UN-patrolled buffer zone bisecting the island.

The two have not met since July 2006 when they agreed on a twin-track process of technical and political talks aimed at laying the ground for peace negotiations.

The most recent international bid to reunify the island failed in April 2004 when the Greek Cypriots voted down a UN-drafted settlement plan, even though the Turkish Cypriots gave it overwhelming support.

The outcome ensured that the Greek Cypriots alone joined the European Union in May that year.

Drawing on its veto power in the bloc, the Greek Cypriots have blocked EU moves to deliver promises to ease the international isolation of the Turkish Cypriots, made as a reward for their “yes” vote at the failed referendum.

Talat last week said that public opinion in the north was hardening and warned that the island might be heading toward permanent partition.

“If time goes by, the current situation will become chronic and this would mean permanent partition,” he told NTV yesterday.

Talat rejected recent comments by Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis that settlement was prevented by the presence of Turkish troops in the north.

“Did the Turkish armed forces arrive here by chance?” he said, recalling bloody intercommunal strife that broke out in the 1960s.

“Their deterrent role is the reason why there is no bloodshed in Cyprus today as in other troubled countries,” he said. “What if they pull out? I believe very bad things may happen.”