Cyprus outgoing president to contest second term

Cyprus' outgoing president Nicos Anastasiades said on Saturday that he will be seeking a second and last five-year term in presidential elections set to take place next January.

Anastasiades told a packed audience of ruling DISY party cadres that he will make it his priority to find a solution to the long standing Cyprus problem in negotiations with Turkish Cypriots and Turkey.

"Failure to reach a solution is not in the interests of either Greek or Turkish Cypriots, and naturally, not of Turkey either. I want to believe Turkey will see the benefits of a solution," he said.

The partition of Cyprus is an unsurmountable obstacle in Ankara's bid to join the European Union or upgrade the status of its relations with EU.

Anastasiades, who had led the center-right wing Democratic Rally Party (DISY) before being elected in 2013, is credited with leading negotiations between Greek and Turkish Cypriots closer to an agreement than never before.

However, the negotiations came to an end in July, when Turkey said it would not consent to giving up guarantee and intervention rights in Cyprus and withdraw all its troops it sent to occupy the northern part of the island, after a Greek-inspired coup in 1974.

Anastasiades said a solution is out of the question without the ending of foreign intervention rights and the stationing of troops forever.

Anastasiades said he has told the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, that he is ready to resume negotiations any time.

But the Turkish side has indicated that it will not consider resuming talks before the outcome of the presidential election is known.

Anastasiades will run against at least three other contestants, Stavros Malas, an independent who is however supported by left wing AKEL party and has been the main opponent of Anastasiades in 2013, Nicolas Papadopoulos, leader of the center Democratic Party and the son of former President Tassos Papadopoulos and Giorgos Lillikas, the leader of the small People's Alliance party.

Anastasiades and Malas support a Cyprus solution in line with a blueprint set out by the UN Secretary-General, while Papadopoulos and Lillikas dismiss the blueprint as potentially risky for Greek Cypriots.

Anastasiades is expected to run an electoral campaign based on his economic record following the 2013 economic crisis that led Cyprus to the brink of bankruptcy.

The eastern Mediterranean island, one of the smallest European Union countries, required an 10-billion-euro bailout by the Eurogroup and the International Monetary Fund, which for three years monitored the application of harsh austerity measures, economic reforms and the resolution of the banking system.

Anastasiades called the crisis one of the most difficult periods Cyprus has ever been through.

Cyprus has returned to a robust development which is expected to reach 3.7 percent this year, according to an IMF estimate, and a healthy surplus budget.