Turkey says hopes for fresh Cyprus peace drive

By Gareth Jones and Michele Kambas

ANKARA/NICOSIA (Reuters) - Turkey sounded a hopeful note on Tuesday of a new peace drive on ethnically divided Cyprus after Greek Cypriot hardliner Tassos Papadopoulos lost a presidential race to two moderates.

Two candidates in favor of re-launching talks to end the island's division, a major hurdle to Turkey's European Union accession hopes, will compete on Sunday.

Papadopoulos was unexpectedly eliminated in the first round of voting. The remaining two candidates, Ioannis Kassoulides and Demetris Christofias, both say they will pursue new peace talks with Turkish Cypriots, which stalled under Papadopoulos's watch.

Turkey, which supports a breakaway state in Cyprus's north, said on Tuesday it was hopeful of a fresh peace drive.

"We hope that a new period for a resolution of the Cyprus problem will begin after the election. There will be efforts (from the Turkish side to help solve the problem) but we have to be a little patient," Turkish Foreign Minister Ali Babacan said.

Kassoulides and Christofias each need Papadopoulos's 31 percent chunk of the vote to swing Sunday's poll. Papadopoulos refused to publicly back either.

"I do not intend, either directly or indirectly, to influence the vote of citizens who placed their faith in me," Papadopoulos said in a statement.

The 74-year-old led Greek Cypriot rejection of a United Nations peace plan in 2004, which resulted in a divided Greek Cypriot-led Cyprus now in the European Union.

Ethnic Greeks and Turks have lived estranged for decades. Turkey invaded Cyprus's north in 1974 after a brief Greek inspired coup, and a U.N. force controls a ceasefire line.

Greek Cypriots have the ability to block European Union accession negotiations of Turkey. Mediators want to relaunch peace talks, worried that the Cyprus conflict will have lasting repercussions on Turkey's EU aspirations.

There are also concerns that unresolved, the conflict could spill over into wider issues like EU security cooperation with NATO, of which Turkey is a member and Cyprus is not.

Papadopoulos was supported in his bid for the presidency by five parties. The largest, his own Democratic Party, was expected to decide later Tuesday who to support in the runoff.

(Editing by Charles Dick)