By Michele Kambas and Jean Christou
Reuters
Sunday, May 21, 2006; 2:22 PM

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus voters bolstered President Tassos Papadopoulos in a parliamentary election on Sunday, applauding a government that has threatened to veto Turkey's EU entry talks.

Parties that backed a 2004 U.N. peace plan for the divided Mediterranean island saw support erode, while those that fought it won wider voter approval, led by Papadopoulos's Democratic Party which had the biggest gains.

With nearly all votes counted, his party had 17.78 percent of the vote compared to 14.84 percent in 2001 elections.

Although the vote for parliament has no direct effect on the government, the first election since the failed referendum was seen as a litmus test for Cypriot willingness to work toward a solution and remove a major hurdle in Turkey's EU path.

"This is referendum number two," said James Ker-Lindsay at Kingston University in London. "Papadopoulos can take it as an endorsement of his policies and continue to take a hardline stance."

Results showed big losses for all the parties which had been in favor of a U.N. power-sharing blueprint, overwhelmingly rejected by Greek Cypriots on the eve of the partitioned island joining the European Union in 2004.

DECADES OF DIVISION

Greek and Turkish Cypriots have lived divided since Turkey invaded Cyprus's north in 1974 in response to a brief Greek-inspired coup. Decades of international efforts to re-unite the island have failed.

Analysts said the vote shows international mediators will have a hard time trying to re-impose the U.N. settlement proposals, which had called for large degrees of power-sharing between the two sides. The plan was accepted by the less well off and politically isolated Turkish Cypriots.

The pro-plan main opposition Democratic Rally won 30.44 percent of the vote, down from 34 percent in 2001.

Voters also appear to be punishing the power-sharing communist AKEL, which had 31.37 percent of the vote from 34.71 in 2001, for initially sitting on the fence in the run-up to the referendum before deciding to go against it.

"We have a vindication of Papadopoulos's policies. And his policy is to overcome the U.N. plan and to squeeze concessions out of Turkey on its path to EU accession," said analyst Hubert Faustmann at Intercollege.

Papadopoulos and AKEL are partners in a governing coalition which has warned it could veto Turkey's bid to join the European Union if Ankara does not comply with EU commitments to open its ports and airports to Cypriot traffic by the end of this year.

Cyprus, represented in the EU only by its internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government which does not have any diplomatic ties with Ankara, is also a thorn in Greek-Turkish relations.

Half a million Greek Cypriots voted for 56 members of the House of Representatives.

Some 266 Turkish Cypriots were also permitted to vote for the first time since a constitutional crisis in 1963 which saw that community pull out of Cyprus's then power-sharing administration.