President of the Republic Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu discussed Thursday governance and power sharing, focusing on external relations, in the context of UN-led talks to solve the Cyprus problem.

“The leaders met for around an hour and a half today in a very constructive spirit and a positive frame of mind. They concentrated their discussion on governance and power sharing with a particular, but not exclusive focus on external relations”, UN General Secretary’s Special Adviser Alexander Downer told reporters after the meeting.

The next meeting of the two leaders is set for next Monday. As a follow up from today’s discussion there will be some discussion by the representatives and their expert teams in the next few days.

The Special Representative also announced that the next meeting between the leaders of two sides and the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will most likely take place between the 22nd and the 24th of January.

Asked whether the UN is losing patience with the process, Downer said that they are not losing patience, but they are just doing what they can to make sure that their contribution is effective without being mediators and arbitrators.

“It’s not about patience or impatience, we haven’t lost patience with the process but it’s about making sure that we get good results and we, for our part are only here to help, it’s a Cypriot-own and Cypriot-let process”, he said, adding that the UN are providing the best support they possibly can, with lot of very high quality people working there.

He expressed the hope that this phase of the talks that will lead up to the Green Tree II meeting and will be really constructive.

He also said that the UN hope that by the end of the Green Tree meeting, namely over the next couple of months and through the days in Green Tree, there will be some really good results.

“That’s what our ambitions and targets are here and we will obviously have to see by the time we get to the end of the Green Tree meeting, what the Secretary General wishes to do and how he wishes to take the progress forward, but that’s a hypothetical situation at the moment”, he added.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. The leaders of the two communities are currently engaged in UN-led negotiations with an aim to reunify the island.