Cyprus vote seen boosting hardliner Papadopoulos

NICOSIA, May 17 (Reuters) Cyprus elects a new parliament on Sunday in a vote set to give a boost to President Tassos Papadopoulos, a fierce critic of Turkey who led his community into rejection of a UN peace plan in 2004.

The first major test of Papadopoulos's hardline policy, the May 21 election will also signal how far Greek Cypriots are willing to go to end the division of the Mediterranean island, easing Turkey's European Union path.

Papadopoulos's centrist Democratic Party is seen making gains from the 9 seats out of 56 he won in 2001, with parties which campaigned in favour of the UN plan -- the central theme of this election -- losing out.

Papadopoulos, 70, won Western disapproval when he urged Greek Cypriots to reject the U.N. blueprint for Cyprus in April 2004, a week before the island joined the European Union.

Analysts say the impact of a bolstered Papadopoulos may not bode well for Turkey, which needs his consent to continue its own delicate EU accession negotiations.

''If his party does well then he will feel strengthened, and if he wants to use this to be tougher on Turkey then he will have the mandate to do it,'' said James Ker-Lindsay of Kingston University in London.

Papadopoulos slammed the UN plan as an attempt to impose a uick- fix to suit Turkey and his views seem to resonate among Greek Cypriots. Peace talks have been at a standstill since.

''He is the only one who has had the courage to stand up to anyone. He speaks his mind,'' says first-time voter Ari Christou, an 18-year-old IT student among an estimated 500,600 on the electoral roll.

BIG HURDLE FOR TURKEY Partitioned since a Turkish invasion in 1974 triggered by a brief Greek Cypriot coup, Cyprus is one of the biggest hurdles Ankara faces in its attempts to join the EU and a major thorn in relations between NATO neighbours Greece and Turkey.

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