ANKARA -- Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul has expressed optimism that the 29-year division of Cyprus would be resolved within a year, in time for the island's entry to the European Union.

"I believe that the conflict in the island will be resolved within a year," Gul told the liberal daily Radikal in an interview published Saturday, AFP reported.

"Everybody is supporting the negotiations... this job does not end here. Let the dust settles first," Gul said.

He was referring to the signing of an accession treaty Wednesday between the EU and the internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot government in the south of the island which froze the self-styled Turkish Cypriot statelet in the north out of the European Bloc.

The EU says it will admit only the Greek Cypriot side if the island is not reunified in time for formal membership in May 2004.

But such a prospect is threatening to spark tensions with Turkey -- whose troops have been holding the Turkish Cypriot part of the island since 1974 -- and scupper Ankara's own aspirations of joining the EU.

Gul said the sealing of the accession treaty between the EU and Greek Cyprus had created difficulties for both sides of the conflict.

"The EU made a mistake by importing the (Cyprus) problem. The Turkish side is tense because a settlement has not been possible," he told Radikal.

A UN initiative to end Cyprus' division failed last month when leaders of both Cypriot communities raised objections to a reunification plan put forward by Secretary General Kofi Annan.

But Annan said hard-line nationalist Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash had primary responsibility for the failure.

The UN has urged the parties to continue talks to reach a solution before the island joins the EU.

Cyprus has been bisected along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkey occupied the northern third of the island in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup seeking union with Greece.