Athens/Nicosia  - Former US President Jimmy Carter, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former Algerian Foreign Minister Lakhdar Brahimi on Thursday urged leaders of the divided island of Cyprus to end its decades-old division.

Carter, Tutu and Brahimi arrived on Cyprus late Wednesday as part of a meeting of the organization The Elders, a group of 12 Nobel laureates and human activists who try to help resolve global crisis.

The trio are scheduled to hold separate talks on Thursday with Greek Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Mehmet Ali Talat, as well as with United Nations envoy Alexander Downer.

"We want to tell the people here that nowhere in the world is there an intractable problem," Tutu was quoted in the Cypriot press, speaking before students gathered inside the UN-controlled buffer zone dividing the island.

"I come from South Africa where some thought its problem could only be solved through violence. It was not, and now South Africa is a democracy," said the Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

The former US president said that the Elders visited the island to offer support to the cause of peace.

"The overwhelming sense that all of us have is that this is a decision that must be made by the Cypriot people and no one from outside."

Christofias and Talat officially launched a new round of peace talks September 3 and will meet again Friday for the fourth time. So far, negotiations have provided few results.

"We pray and hope and trust the two leaders will be successful," said Carter, adding that "it is very important for the people living here to know that the rest of the world is pulling for you."

Cyprus has been divided into an internationally recognised Greek- Cypriot south and breakaway Turkish Cypriot north since 1974, when Turkey invaded the northern third of the island in response to a short-lived coup initiated by Greece. (dpa)