Turkey announced its conditions for an agreement to reunify Cyprus early yesterday, insisting that any reunification deal must be guaranteed by the European Union.

　　Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul disclosed Turkey's conditions at the end of a more than three-hour meeting with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the chief of Turkey's powerful military, General Hilmi Ozkok, in Ankara.

　　"Any agreement must be included in the EU's primary law," Gul said. "This is a non-negotiable issue for us."

　　Gul stressed that Turkey wants to make sure that no one can change a Cyprus reunification deal, if it is reached, in the future.

　　Some EU lawmakers led by Mathilde Roth of Germany, who is the co-chair of the EU-Cyprus Joint Parliamentary Committee, have said the EU parliament needs to rule whether the UN-drafted plan for the reunification of Cyprus conforms with basic EU laws and principles.

　　The EU parliamentary committee said "that a Cyprus solution ... must be based on the pertinent UN resolutions, respect the human rights and basic freedoms of the people of Cyprus and be in conformity with the European ideals and principles" as well as with the basic EU law.

　　Cyprus is to join the EU on May 1. The issue of exclusions from basic EU principles such as freedom of movement and the right to own property anywhere in the union is one of the differences between the Greek and Turkish Cypriot sides blocking a settlement.

　　Gul insisted that the Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities should live separately and that settlers from Turkey be allowed to remain.

　　The Turkish and Greek sides will attend a top-level United Nations meeting on the reunification of the war-divided island in Switzerland starting on Wednesday.

　　The six-day meeting in Burgenstock, Switzerland - which brings Greece and Turkey to the negotiating table - is an attempt to break the deadlock after the Greek and Cypriot leaders failed to reach agreement during three weeks of talks.

　　(The Associated Press)