NICOSIA, 30 September 2003 — Greek Cypriots politicians were locked in a dispute yesterday over the cost of a UN reunification plan mediators see as the only way of ending a decades-old division of the island.

Former Cypriot President George Vassiliou published a survey last week which said the proposed settlement, taken at face value, would not cripple the 6.6 billion pound ($12.5 billion) economy, but, on the contrary, fuel growth and investment.

It prompted a chorus of disapproval that he was undermining government efforts to secure changes to the document. The timing also rankled many, coinciding with an address by Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos to the UN General Assembly.

“We are exerting intense diplomatic efforts for the Cyprus problem... political parties should offer every support and avoid actions which essentially undermine those efforts,” said the Democratic Party, one of four partners in the centre-left government.

Cyprus was torn apart by fighting in 1974 when Turkish forces invaded north Cyprus after a brief Greek-inspired coup.

Vassiliou and a team of economists said the UN plan would cost the island some 3.6 billion pounds, well below official government estimates ranging from 10 to 13 billion pounds.

Behind the disagreement is a distaste for the UN blueprint, even though the Greek Cypriot side has accepted it as a basis for negotiations.

“It doesn’t weaken anyone’s position to say that it might be a good thing financially. This reinforces that they do not like the plan as it stands,” said one foreign observer closely following Cyprus affairs.

Talks between Greek and Turkish Cypriots collapsed in March, further denting hopes that a reunited island would join the European Union in its next expansion in May 2004.

Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash was widely blamed by diplomats for the collapse of the talks.

The UN blueprint would relink Cyprus in a loose federation of two largely autonomous areas with a central government, involve territory handovers and large population shifts.

Any resumption of negotiations is unlikely until the outcome of Turkish Cypriot parliamentary elections on Dec. 14.

The government is carrying out its own economic impact survey of the plan as are at least two other political parties.

Vassiliou’s survey was welcomed by Britain, Cyprus’s former colonial power and a key player in trying to negotiate a deal.

“We believe Mr. Vassiliou’s economic analysis of the plan is a carefully researched and serious contribution to the continuing debate which deserves careful consideration,” said a spokesman for the British High Commission in Nicosia.