Berlin  - Cypriot Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou expressed optimism Friday that the divided eastern Mediterranean island would be reunited by the end of the decade.

"Through persistence we can reach a solution," Kyprianou said in an interview with German national public radio Deutschlandfunk while on a visit to Berlin.

Asked whether he was optimistic, the foreign minister said: "I am, I am. I'm very much encouraged by the people of Cyprus."

Cooperation between the Greeks community and the northern Turkish zone showed the two groups could live together.

He pointed to new movement in the situation on the island, divided since the 1974 invasion of the north by Turkish forces, with a new president, Demetris Christofias, and a new Turkish leader in the north, Mehmet Ali Talat.

Kyprianou expressed the hope that there would soon be a resolution to the legal challenge being mounted in Turkey against the ruling Turkish AK Party, which is accused of being unconstitutional.

AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan had taken a positive attitude to the issue of Cyprus, recognizing that there was a problem, Kyprianou said.

The legal challenge should be resolved "as soon as possible in favour of democratic institutions and the political system."

Kyprianou said that while the Ledra Street checkpoint had been opened in early April, there was still a wall dividing the two communities in Cyprus.

The removal of 40,000 Turkish troops in the north remained "the million-dollar question," he said, adding that it was in the interests of all sides for them to be withdrawn.

Kyprianou met German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the German capital on Wednesday.

Steinmeier said he was confident current talks on the island would lead to full-scale negotiations "by the middle of the year." (dpa)