Talat in UK To Meet Gordon Brown

Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat is in London for a five-day visit during which he met with Prime Minister Gordon Brown and made speeches in several venues.

Speaking at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Talat said that talks are to be stepped up sharply in January, according to Reuters newswire, in order to try and reach a settlement before Turkish-Cypriot elections in mid-April.

"The election campaign might be detrimental to the negotiation process, so sometime maybe we will stop the negotiations and most probably this will be (around) mid-February," said Talat, adding that Christofias and he had agreed to hold two meetings 'from morning until night' on two consecutive days in January.

After meeting with Talat at the Houses of Parliament, Brown said Friday that attempts to revive peace talks in Cyprus are making good progress and that "this is a critical time for the talks", according to a report by AP.

Whilst in England, on Sunday he will meet with Nikos Anastasiades, leader of Cyprus' main opposition Democratic Rally Party (DISI).