NICOSIA, April 2, 2008 (AFP) - Top UN official Lynn Pascoe gave an upbeat assessment on Wednesday of the renewed efforts to reunite Cyprus, at the end of a three-day shuttle mission across the divided island.

'There is a very positive tone here in Cyprus at the moment and a palpable sense of momentum,' Pascoe told a news conference.

'I think Cypriots are right to have high expectations. I'm encouraged and I will pass this on to the (UN) secretary general (Ban Ki-moon) when I talk with him,' he added.

His report to the UN chief and the Security Council will be 'positive and hopeful', said Pascoe, who was to return to New York later on Wednesday.

As he wound up the mission, a diplomatic source said that the symbolic Ledra Street crossing in Nicosia, a 'Checkpoint Charlie' of the world's last divided capital, was to open on Thursday for the first time in 45 years.

'My understanding is that we are moving forward and that Ledra Street should open,' Pascoe said.

The UN diplomat was assigned to determine how the United Nations can help with efforts to reach a settlement after the Greek- and Turkish-Cypriot leaders agreed on March 21 to enter intensive peace talks in three months.

'It is our sincere hope and expectation that the period in the next three months will take us towards fully-fledged negotiations on a settlement.'

'We all know achieving a solution won't be easy... It will require a lot of hard work and compromise but I'm confident the two sides, with our help, can succeed.'

Pascoe, the US head of the UN Department of Political Affairs, held a second round of talks with President Demetris Christofias, a Greek Cypriot, on Wednesday before crossing the UN-patrolled ceasefire line to meet again with Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat.

'There is a lot to work with, there is a lot we can do...

'The trick is always, of course, is to close those gaps and find the appropriate trade-off and then come up with a package that people on both sides of the line can support.'

Christofias was elected president in February on a platform of reviving reunification talks which had gone nowhere under his predecessor Tassos Papadopolous.

At his first meeting with Talat as president, Christofias reached agreement on relaunching talks in earnest after three months of preparatory work by technical committees.

The two leaders also agreed that, as a confidence-building measure, the Ledra Street crossing in the heart of the capital 'will as soon as technically possible open'.

Pascoe is also scheduled to visit both Athens and Ankara next week as part of efforts to help advance reunification talks.

Greek Cypriot voters rejected a UN reunification plan that was approved by Turkish Cypriots in 2004 meaning that a divided island joined the European Union later the same year.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974 when Turkish troops occupied its northern third in response to an Athens-engineered Greek Cypriot coup seeking Enosis, or union with Greece.