Government Spokesman Michalis Papapetrou strongly denied on Thursday allegations by Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash, who in an interview with Reuters earlier today, claimed that the Greek Cypriot side had tried during this week's direct talks to provoke a breakdown and force the Turkish side to withdraw from the talks.

As CNA reports, "Papapetrou stressed that the Greek Cypriot side was not pursuing to make the talks collapse but to make them succeed and was doing its utmost to that end." Papapetrou warned every interested party that "the Turkish side is working towards the degeneration of the talks."

Nevertheless, the Cypriot official welcomed Denktash's decision to discuss with President Glafcos Clerides the territorial issue, which is one of the four core issues addressed during the talks. The other three are governance, property and security.