NICOSIA (AFP) -- UN chief Ban Ki-moon said in Cyprus on Monday that courage was required from the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders if their island was to be unified once more after long decades of division.

He held talks with the two rival leaders in separate and three-way meetings on a mission aimed at trying to inject new life into flagging talks to reunify the eastern Mediterranean island.
“For decades the world has heard about a Cyprus problem. Now is the time for a Cyprus solution,” he said in a written statement after the talks with President Demetris Christofias, a Greek Cypriot, and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.
“I am encouraged that the two leaders personally assured me of their shared commitment to a comprehensive solution as early as possible. I am convinced that these two leaders can achieve a mutually beneficial solution,” he said.
However, Ban who started a two-day visit late on Sunday, said they will need even more “courage and determination.”
The two leaders, in a joint statement read out by Ban, expressed “confidence that with goodwill and determination, we can achieve a solution in the shortest possible time.
“It is our common conviction that the Cyprus problem has remained unresolved for too long. We are also aware that time is not on the side of a settlement.”
Ban earlier toured the Nicosia part of the United Nations-patrolled buffer zone that slices across the whole island.
Hundreds of Turkish Cypriot demonstrators urged him to press for a solution.
“Solution Now!” and “Mr. Ban, encourage the leaders to take action for a solution,” read placards as he entered Turkish-held northern Nicosia through a pedestrian crossing in the world's last divided capital to meet Talat.
During his tour of the buffer zone, he sounded a personal note as he urged Talat and Christofias to redouble their efforts to reach a solution, which he said was within reach.
“As a citizen of Korea, I am coming from a country where it is still divided between the south and north,” he said.
“I have seen for myself the very sad reality, the emptiness and destruction, and such very painful feelings I share with the people of Cyprus... I am here to show my solidarity, my support for these ongoing talks.”
The rival Cypriot leaders whose negotiations have dragged on for 17 months need to show “courage, flexibility, vision and a spirit of compromise” to end the division, Ban said.
Christofias's internationally recognized government, however, “expressed displeasure” that Ban met Talat at his offices in breakaway northern Cyprus rather than at his residence, the Cyprus News Agency reported.
Eight years ago Ban's predecessor Kofi Annan visited Cyprus and urged the two communities to seize a “historic opportunity.”
But the Greek Cypriots later rejected Annan's reunification blueprint in a referendum, ensuring a still divided Cyprus joined the European Union in 2004 despite a Turkish Cypriot referendum approving Annan's plan.
The latest UN-led effort has also struggled to produce tangible results since its launch amid much optimism in September 2008. The two sides remain far apart on the core issues of property, security and territorial adjustments.
Ban's visit followed two rounds of intensified negotiations between the leaders that were meant to accelerate reunification.
However, the talks will need to be suspended soon to allow Talat to campaign for elections called for April 18 in the breakaway self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Talat is trailing in the polls to hardliner Dervis Eroglu.
The leaders of both sides have said they are committed to finding a solution in 2010, a timetable strongly backed by the United Nations and United States. Any deal must be put before their people in separate referendums.
Cyprus has been split since Turkish troops seized and occupied its northern third in 1974 in response to a Greek Cypriot coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece.