UN Envoy: July Halt to Cyprus Peace Talks Likely Long-running negotiations to reunify divided Cyprus will likely halt in July, when the island's Greek Cypriot-led government takes over the European Union's six-month rotating presidency, a U.N. envoy says. Alexander Downer, the U.N. Special Adviser on Cyprus, said Turkish Cypriots believe negotiations during that period would be "meaningless" since Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias would be preoccupied with EU matters. Christofias has said the talks could continue despite Cyprus' EU presidency, but Downer said Turkish Cypriots have ruled that out. "If one side choses not to turn up to the talks anymore, that is the end," Downer told The Associated Press in an interview. The Mediterranean island of Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup by supporters of union with Greece. The island joined the EU in 2004, but only the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot south enjoys those benefits. Turkish Cypriots in the north declared independence in 1983, but only Turkey recognizes the area and maintains 35,000 troops there. Numerous rounds of U.N. mediated peace talks over four decades have led nowhere. The latest round, which began amid high hopes in 2008, has achieved limited progress, and both sides have begun blaming each other for the impasse. Downer said talks are stalled on how executive power would be shared under an envisioned federation and on how to deal with private property that was lost during the invasion. Greek Cypriots object to any fixed negotiation deadlines to avoid repeating their rejection in a referendum of a 2004 U.N.-brokered deal they said was weighed against them. Turkish Cypriots had approved the deal. Downer, a former Australian foreign minister, also cast doubt whether the two sides could arrive at an agreement even if negotiations resumed after the Cypriot EU presidency ends at the end of the year. He noted that Greek Cypriot leaders would then be focused on presidential elections slated for next February. "I don't think that that will be an environment in which there's going to be a great breakthrough in Cyprus peace talks," Downer said. He said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had planned to call an international conference by early May, bringing together Britain, Greece and Turkey to put the final touches on a Cyprus accord, but added the two sides have not converged closely enough on key issues yet. "It's not so much that it would take time to achieve them, it would take political decisions to achieve them," he said.