BRUSSELS, March 14, 2008 (AFP) - New Cypriot President Demetris Christofias said Thursday that he hoped landmark talks in Nicosia with Turkish-Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat on March 21 can be held in a spirit of goodwill.

'I hope my hand I give to Mr Talat will be taken and will be shaken,' he told reporters in Brussels, on the sidelines of a European Union summit.

'I am going there full of goodwill in order to solve the problem, the problem has to be solved, time is passing,' he said, urging Talat to engage in a 'creative and positive dialogue'.

'The main purpose of my presidency is to put an end to the tragedy of Cyprus, to the division,' said Christofias, a communist party leader elected president of the Mediterranean island last month.

His victory, in replacing hardline Tassos Papadopoulos, has raised hopes for a new drive to end Cyprus's 34-year-old division, which has also been an obstacle to Turkey's efforts to gain membership of the European Union.

Papadopoulos had led Greek Cypriots in rejecting a UN reunification plan in a 2004 referendum and talks went nowhere during his term of office.

Talat heads the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), announced in 1983 and recognised only by Ankara.

Greek Cypriot rejection of the 2004 reunification plan, which was overwhelmingly approved by Turkish Cypriots, meant that a divided island joined the European Union that year.

Cyprus has been split along ethnic lines since 1974 when Turkish troops occupied its northern third in response to a Greek Cypriot coup seeking union with Greece.