Cypriot leaders have held talks aimed at ending the 34-year-old division of the island.
Greek Cypriot President Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, are both seen as pro-settlement moderates.
Today's meeting, the fifth this year between the two leaders, paved the way for substantive negotiations to begin on 11 September.
Those negotiations will focus on power-sharing, with Mr Christofias and Mr Talat then expected to meet at least once a week.
The negotiation process has an open-ended timeline but the UN has warned that the talks can not go on indefinitely without tangible progress.
The build-up to the talks has been clouded by the refusal of Turkish Cypriot authorities to allow Greek Cypriot pilgrims to travel via a town in the remote northwest of the island to attend a church service.
However, hundreds of Turkish and Greek Cypriot peace activists rallied on Monday night in the capital's buffer zone chanting for a reunified Cyprus.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when tens of thousands of Turkish troops occupied its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup seeking union with Greece.
The division has been a main hurdle to Turkey's EU accession and a source of tension with NATO ally Greece.
