British High Commissioner to Cyprus Peter Millet dismissed reports on Thursday that after talks with the UN Secretariat, the US State Department and the UK Foreign Office, Britain is ready in April, when it assumes the presidency of the Security Council, to call a meeting on the issue, in order to be briefed on the situation by the UN Secretary General's Special Representative in Cyprus Michael Moller.
Speaking in Limassol, Millet said there was no such proposal on behalf of Britain and that it was all a misunderstanding. He explained that any meeting at the UN on the issue would probably be held in the context of the programme set out by former UN Undersecretary for Political Affairs Ibrahim Gambari, who is now a UN special advisor.
''There is no proposal on our side,'' Millet said, adding that ''if they want they will have a discussion in New York but no proposal has been made on our behalf.''
Millet noted that ''the July 8 agreement is a large basis and framework for the solution of the Cyprus problem and our role is to encourage progress and to push the other side to take steps necessary for progress soon.''
Commenting on the fact that EU spheres were trying to promote trade between the EU and the areas of Cyprus over which the government does not have effective control, Millet said this issue concerned the German Presidency of the bloc and ''we must wait for the framework that may be agreed on.''
Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat agreed on 8 July 2006, during a meeting in Nicosia in the presence of Gambari, to begin a process of bicommunal discussions on issues that affect the day-to-day life of the people and concurrently those that concern substantive issues, both contributing to a comprehensive settlement to the Cyprus problem.