Greek and Turkish Cypriots vote tomorrow on a UN plan to reunite Cyprus that nearly everyone believes is already doomed to failure.

　　The probable death knell was delivered yesterday when the Greek Cypriots' biggest political party said it would not back the plan to end the Mediterranean island's 30-year division.

　　Even if Greek Cypriots vote "No" and Turkish Cypriots "Yes," the deal is dead and only the Greek part would join the European Union on May 1, leaving Turkish Cypriots still in international isolation from continental Europe.

　　Political ripples from separate referendums of 400,000 Greek Cypriot voters and 200,000 Turkish Cypriots spread in many directions.

　　They include Turkey's own hopes of joining the EU, US influence in a strategic area close to the Middle East and the United Nations' credibility in solving world disputes. They would also throw a cloud over May 1 celebrations of the EU's biggest enlargement when nine other nations join with Cyprus.

　　Cyprus was racked by intercommunal violence in the 1960s and was split when Turkey invaded the north in 1974 after a Greek Cypriot coup which aimed at union with Greece.

　　Since then, the unilaterally declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus - one third the size and population of the far wealthier Greek Cypriot part - has lived with a blockade.

　　The last opinion polls, before they were banned earlier this week so as not to influence the referendum results, showed up to 70 percent of Greek Cypriots would vote "No" while almost the same percentage of Turkish Cypriots would vote "Yes."

　　Us secretary of State Colin Powell says he has not given up hope of an upset that could see the island reunited under a loose power-sharing government. "I'm an optimist, and I'm still optimistic that a 'yes' vote is possible," Powell told Greece's Mega Television.

　　But the last chance for a turnaround appeared lost hours later when the Greek Cypriot AKEL communist party, a past supporter of reunification, said it opposed the plan because the United Nations had not given guarantees it wanted on security.

　　"I'm sorry to say the response (from the United Nations) was not what we expected," Dimitris Christofias, secretary-general of the AKEL communist party, told reporters.

　　On wednesday, Russia had vetoed a UN Security Council resolution backed by Britain and the United States that aimed to encourage Greek and Turkish Cypriots to back the UN plan with the desired security guarantees.

　　(Reuters)