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"Greece agrees to

Aegean talks process"

BUCHAREST: Turkish Foreign Minister Emre Gonensay said on Saturday he and his Greek counterpart Theodoros Pangalos had agreed a process for talks aimed at ending tension over territory in the Aegean.

Gonensay told a news conference the two foreign ministries would send experts to Switzerland to assess "grey areas" in a treaty covering the Aegean and prepare the ground for bilateral talks at a NATO meeting in Berlin in June.

"This is the start of talks between the two foreign ministers," Gonensay said after his first meeting with Pangalos at a Black Sea Cooperation conference in Bucharest.

Pangalos was not at the news conference and did not appear alongside the Turkish minister later.

"I explained to him in detail the proposals of the Turkish prime minister on settling all our disputes by peaceful means," Gonensay said, adding that he was confident his hour-long meeting with Pangalos was a good start and would reduce tension.

Before the talks Gonensay said his country was ready to negotiate with Greece to end tensions in the Aegean.

He said Turkey would be open to arbitration by some outside agency or court if Ankara and Athens could not negotiate alone.

Greece and Turkey have been at odds for months amid rows over isolated Aegean islets. A confrontation in January was avoided only by United States diplomacy.

Gonensay said the mere fact the two had spoken should help ease the stress levels on both sides.

"We should asume that tensions are subsiding after this meeting; even that assumption will produce a lessening of tensions," he said.

"This is the start of talks.we are going to have another round of talks in about a month, in between our representatives will meet. I consider this a positive result and I am optimistic about the prospects," Gonensay said.

Before the meeting Gonensay said the Aegean was the main issue and Cyprus would not be discussed.

Asked about the issue of the divided island of Cyprus, he said: "We are keeping that apart from our bilateral problems."

The Aegean was the central issue. "There are very important questions and all are interlinked. The whole package is important; we have tensions in the Aegean."

Greece and Turkey, which came close to war in March 1987 over mineral rights in the Aegean, both claim control over a barren islet called Imia by Athens and Kardak by Ankara.

January's clash scuttled plans for a new U.S. initiative over Cyprus.

Cyprus has been partitioned since 1974, when Turkish troops occupied the north of the island in reaction to a coup in Nicosia engineered by the military junta then ruling Greece.-Reuter