María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar

Chances of restarting formal talks to mend Cyprus' decades-long ethnic division appeared dimmer Wednesday as the leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots told a UN envoy that he saw no common ground with Greek Cypriots for a return to negotiations.

Ankara has expressed its expectations for a fair and objective report on Cyprus from the U.N. special envoy, the diplomatic sources told Hurriyet Daily News.

A senior U.N. envoy with a special task on reporting about whether there is ground for a new initiative to resolve the decades-old Cyprus problem has held talks with senior Turkish officials in Ankara, including Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan.

The obstacles to rekindling talks on the Cyprus issue, let alone to reaching a mutually acceptable settlement, were the focus of a meeting in Athens on Tuesday between María Ángela Holguín Cuellar, the UN chief's new personal envoy for Cyprus, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis.

Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis met on Tuesday with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' new personal envoy for Cyprus, Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar.

The meeting in Athens was the first between the two officials since Cuellar was appointed to the post in a bid to restart stalled talks on the Cyprus issue.

A United Nations official said on Tuesday that her experience in negotiating an end to decades of conflict in her native Colombia may help her as she seeks to rekindle talks over Cyprus' ethnic division.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday named a former Colombian foreign minister as his personal envoy to scope out the chances of reviving talks to resolve Cyprus' ethnic divide, an issue that has defied international diplomacy for nearly five decades.