The United Nations mission in Cyprus was renewed Friday for six months, which Secretary General Kofi Annan said was needed to maintain a ceasefire on the island without a comprehensive political settlement between Turkish and Greek Cypriots. The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to extend the mandate, effective from December 15 through June 15, 2005. The mission now has 1,224 peacekeepers and 44 civilian police officers, but their numbers will be further reduced next year to below 900 for all military ranks and components. The U.N. mission separates Turkish Cypriots in the north and Greek Cypriots in the south. Annan has informed the council that the reduced U.N. mission should be capable of carrying out a "whole range of mandated tasks while taking into account the changed environment and achieving a more efficient utilization of resources". He said that the mission will be transformed by mid-2005 with developments on the ground. U.N. peacekeepers have been in the former British colony since 1964. The mission has been manning a ceasefire line separating the two sides since a 1974 invasion by Turkey. Annan's efforts to reunify the Turkish and Greek communities failed in April when the Greek Cypriot side turned down his plan in a referendum. He had hoped that the two sides would form a single state to enter the European Union on May 1, but only the Greek Cypriot part of the island gained admission. --SP 0143 Local Time 2243 GMT
