Athens/Nicosia - Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders are meeting on Thursday to discuss power-sharing and governance in a new round of peace talks set on ending a decades old conflict and reunite the divided Mediterranean island.

Cyprus President Dimitris Christofias and Turkihs Cypriot leader Mehemt Ali Talat launched a new round of peace talks on September 3.

Peace talks have been deadlocked after former president Tassos Papadopoulos led the Greek-Cypriot rejection of a UN reunification plan in a 2004 referendum.

Turkish Cypriots had overwhelmingly voted in favour.

With newly-elected Christofias in office, expectations are running high for a breakthrough in efforts to reunite the island, which has been divided since 1974 when Turkey invaded the northern third in response to an Athens-led coup to annex the island to Greece.

The two sides have agreed in principle to reunite the island as a federal state composed of two constituent states, which would guarantee the equality of both communities.

Both sides will focus on the complex list of issues dividing the two sides, meeting at the site of the abandoned, bullet-riddled former airport in the UN buffer zone, ranging from territory and property disputes from more 250,000 people who have lost their homes to future governance of the island. (dpa)