It all looks auspicious, but did the British cook it up?

1. Cyprus Mail
The former UN envoy for Cyprus Alvaro de Soto in an interview in the Mail said "remarkable" developments took place on Friday, which "look quite auspicious". He said he was glad to hear that the two leaders had spent 40 minutes talking alone without UN participation. "The UN was called on to play an intrusive role over the years because there was always one side that was reluctant. A third party was needed to make bridging proposals. Now Christofias and Talat are obviously saying to the UN 'we will call you when we need you'. It is rather remarkable." He welcomed the fact that the two leaders did not let the issue of a basis for the future talks stop them moving ahead. "The statement seems to indicate they have set aside potential wrangling on what basis is going to be used for the talks", he said. He said the Annan plan was just a name and a name that had been given to the UN blueprint by journalists. There was no 'official' Annan plan in existence. Most of it was an accumulation of work done by the two sides over the years. "The UN never referred to it that way," he said. "A very large chunk of the plan, the legislation, the 9,000 pages, was actually negotiated. Granted there was a whip being cracked". De Soto described the Cyprus problem as a padlock needing four keys to open it. "There is something now like a set of circumstances that has never occurred before. For the first time we might just have four keys well disposed to open it", the Peruvian diplomat said.

Elsewhere the paper says that Christofias and Talat's aides will meet every day this week to set up working groups and technical committes. George Iacovou told the paper he was working round the clock this weekend to prepare the titles for between five and seven working groups and the same number of technical committees. He said the only day this week he and Nami would be unable to meet would be on Tuesday because the T/C aide had a prior commitment. And even though Tuesday us a public holiday for G/Cs Iacovou said he would be at Nami's disposal if he so wished. The previous attempt to set up working groups and technical committees under the July 8 agreement floundered for 18 months at the stage of naming the committees and groups despite 50 meetings during that time. "It never went beyond the titles", Iacovou said. He said he was trying a new approach which would decontroversialise some of the titles which bedevilled previous efforts, He named certain wordings such as displaced persons, repatriation and return to homes as some things that need careful handling. "If the T/Cs find some things hard to swallow we may have to find new wording or neutral language. But sometimes you have to call a spade a spade", he added."If we cannot agree on these things then it will not be encouraging".

The paper's editorial expresses the belief that Friday's meeting between the two leaders opened the final chapter in the Cyprus problem. Conditions for a successful conclusion have never been more favourable. The leaders of the two communities are pro-solution and pragmatic supporters of a bizonal, bicommunal federation. The governments of Thurkey and Greece have developed sound bilateral relations and would both be fully behind a new peace initiative and help resolve any differences. In a few hours the two agreed to set in motion a procedure that had been stalled for 18 months. The truth is that for Tassos Papadopoulos the 8 July agreement was the tool for preventing any new initiative taking place and blaming the intransigent T/C side for the deadlock he had caused. Nothing demonstrated the ex-president's commitment to maintaining the stalemate and negative climate he had cultivated more than his handling of the opening of Leddra street. For two years his government was setting idiotic conditions it knew the other side would never accept so that the crossing remained closed. Within a couple of weeks of Christofias' election the objections vanished and the opening of the street was announced. The paper says that in order to maintain this positive climate, the two leaders must avoid public statements that might provoke hostile reactions on either side because these will be seized by the opponents of a settlement in both communities and used to poison the climate. Differences that may arise should be resolved behind closed doors and kept off the airwaves because the media, which had often played a destructive part in the past, and anti-solution politicians will be waiting to pounce and scupper the procedure. This must not be allowed to happen.

Coffeeshop says that red ties were all the rage at Friday's feelgood meeting between Christofias and Talat. The two leaders managed to undo in a few hours the years of hard work against any form of progress by our former Ethnarch. It was really quite easy. They just chucked the 90-plus chapters he had submitted for discussion into the bin, agreed to set up a few committees and working groups to discuss issues of little consequence and brought forward the completion date, from the 20 years comrade Tassos had been angling for, to three months. And after that full speed ahead with direct talks for a settlement. Talat showed that he is not the hardline, intransigent, baby-eating monster controlled by Ankara that the pro-Tassos media would have us believe. He proved quite a reasonable chap and immediately hit it off with comrade presidente. They agreed to the opening of Ledra Street in a matter of minutes, comrade Christofias putting aside all the pathetically daft conditions - the depth of the buffer zone and how many centimetres away the postions of the soldiers should be - set by his predecessor as an excuse for keeping it closed. The atmosphere seems cleaner now. All the poison released into our air on a daily basis for the previous five years by the fallen Ethnach's henchmen, disciples and cheerleaders appears to be clearing despite heroic efforts to keep it circulating. In the run-up to Friday's meeting Edek, Euroko and Diko politicians went on radio shows telling us that they had very low expectations because of Talat's intransigence and his refusal to accept the 8 July agreement . The championing of this agreement by all politicians opposed to a settlement in this century says it all.

2. Politis
The paper leads with a cartoon on its front page of Christofias and Talat lounging on a beach sipping cocktails with the former asking: "How do you find the climate, Mehmet?" and the latter replying: "Excellent!"

Makarios Drousiotis writing in the paper says that the EU considers the letter that the Turkish PM Erdogan sent to the 26 member states to be a green light to a solution. In fact European diplomats believe conditions for a solution have never been better. The writer says he has copies of all three letters sent by Erdogan, Talat and Christofias and says that what the media had said about them did not correspond with reality. First of all the media had said that the Talat and Erdogan letters were very similar and that the former had written it on Ankara's instructions. In reality they letters are completely different both in content and in length, the former being three pages long. While the media said Erdogan mentions two states, parthenogenesis and the 8 July agreement, there are no such references in the letter. What's moreTalat has apparently told Michael Moller that two colleagues of his wrote the letter on his own initiative and even admitted that he had made a mistake in sending it so soon after Papadopoulos' defeat. European diplomats were also surprised at Christofias' letter in which he calls on EU leaders to urge Turkey to abandon its campaign to demolish the 8 July agreement made obvious by the recent letter sent by Erdogan, whereas Erdogan makes no mention to 8 July in his letter. "I believe Cypriots must re-read some of the letters sent by Denktash or Ecevit in order to understand the great leaps that the present-day Turkish government has made", an EU diplomat said. "If Erdogan did not want a solution he would never have sent such a letter. He would have accepted 8 July as T. Papadopoulos understood it, he would open a port in 2009 and would let the talks drag on for years, while on the ground partition would solidify. Erdogan does want a solution because he believes that it will help his entry to Europe". The writer cites Erdogan's call in his letter for the EU to facilitate a solution as being indicative. This would never have happened before.

Columnist Yiangos' Mikellides this week says, while he finds it difficult after five years of writing articles against Tassos to suddenly change his tune, nevertheless he is cautiously optimistic. He says Cyprus' adventures started at the beginning of the century when the priests tried to unite us with Greece totally ignoring the 20% T/Cs. Things got worse with Digeni, Makarios and EOKA and even worse with Denktash who started talking of partition. Makarios and Denktash must be considered as the prime people responsible for the situation we have today. Akel meanwhile kept a more neutral stance, hence the great disappointment when Christofias decided to promote Tassos to power, someone who the writer considers the apogee of nationalism and forces of darkness, a person who destroyed this country. But it seems Christofias is now consciously choosing to change tack. The Left was more ready to accept the T/Cs as partners with the G/C in the Cypriot state. It was more mature and able to recognise that we had a Cypriot identity and accept Cyprus' multiculturalism which the G/C nationalists, racists and priests tried to distort. Cyprus is a bilingual island, culturally independent, Greek speaking, with a history that is parallel but completely different to that of Greece. Christofias' job is difficult. His predecessors failed miserably. Although he takes on a Cyprus in a worse state then ever, hopefully he will succeed better. At least it seems he's trying.

3. Alithia
Pambos Charalambous says that Christofias and Talat are on the road leading to a solution. In this effort Christifias will have Disy not in opposition but in support. The enthusiasm that G/C public opinion greeted the outcome of the meeting increase expectations. On his part Talat should be delighted with the reaction both of the T/C as well as Turkey. While the international community is willing to proceed with practical measure to encourage the interlocutors to see it through to the end. There are ideas being hatched which will soon see the light of day.

The paper says that according to information the two sides didn't actually agree as to where the buffer zone should be around the Ledra Palace so gave it over to UNFICYP. However, the two leaders agreed at their meeting that if they each remained entrenched in their positions the Cyprus problem would never be solved. So they decided to go ahead anyway and trust that everything would be sorted out with a final solution. Apparently Talat tried to explain to Christofias that he has the good will but that he must understand the difficulties in which the T/C side is in. Christofias assured him that he has the understanding of the G/C but that he must also help himself and proceed with practical actions of good will. He told him to have the courage to make brave steps forward and that he would stand by him like a rock and would do all in his power both within Cyprus and abroad to support him.

4. Haravghi
The paper says the scenes that unfolded before the meeting of the two leaders were very touching as a number of G/C and T/C women lined the streets holding banners urging the two men to proceed for a solution and to end the division of the island.

5. Phileleftheros
The paper says that a flood of mediators is coming to the island starting with the UN's UnderSecretary General Lyn Pascoe who is arriving on Sunday followed by US officials. The British will act as master of ceremonies, the paper says.

6. Simerini
We're heading for an express solution, says the paper. Christofias and Talat responded to the expectations of the international community. The question, it adds, is whether at the end of the day they will also respond to the expectations for a just, viable and democratic solution as well. But what if the outcome of the technical committees is not good? Then what? Will they sweep their differences under the carpet as they did on Friday and still go ahead with direct talks? In general there were some shadows hanging over Friday's agreement which hopefully will be dissoved. It would be naive to think that the meeting did not go ahead without behind-the-scenes work. The British High Commissioner was surprisingly optimistic when everyone was still reserved. He said that the gap between the two wasn't so big that it couldn't be bridged. Prophetic, it seems he knows what he's saying. And since there are no prophets in politics one wonders whether the coffee the two drank was truly metrio, and who cooked it? Was it Cypriot, or imported? And if it was Cypriot, did it have a British aroma?

Savvas Iacovides argues that anyone who thinks the British left the island in 1960 are naive and unaware of political realities. The British are still here on the ground, with their bases and the mentality of a number of people who think like them. They are the biggest, strongest, most effective and most long term player in the Cyprus problem. They proved it with the way they cooked up Friday's meeting. It followed a British formula which would weaken the 8 July agreement, would avert a possible deadlock, would set the basis for a speedy negotiation with the aim of reaching a resolution by 2009 and allowing Turkey to appear with a good record before the EU. It seems it worked. No mention was made of 8 July and they set tight timeframes for the various working groups and committees. No mention of the EU playing a supportive role. Instead they said they wanted to underline what they had agreed on not what they had disagreed on. So they disagreed? On what issues? How serious were the disagreements? When will we know about them? It seems this truly is a new era for Cyprus and we will know soon enough whether the coffee they drank will turn into sketto or glyki.