Rival Cypriot leaders agreed to reopen a street running through the heart of Cyprus’s divided capital yesterday to kickstart reunification talks.

Barricades that have split Nicosia’s most famous shopping street for nearly half a century will be dismantled as a first goodwill gesture. Ledra Street, the most potent symbol of Cyprus’s division, could now become a stepping stone towards the island’s reunification.

“I feel great. It means business will go up and politically it’s the beginning of a solution which we’ve all been waiting so long for,” said Panayiotis Panayiotou, the Greek Cypriot owner of a snack bar in Ledra Street. President Christofias, the new Greek Cypriot leader, and Mehmet Ali Talat, who heads the Turkish Cypriot community, beamed with bonhomie as their joint announcement was read by a senior UN official.

“We shall try our utmost in order to come to an agreed solution for the interest of the Cypriot people, both communities, as soon as possible,” President Christofias said. Standing beside him, Mr Talat added: “This is a new era we are starting for the solution of the Cyprus problem.”

Aides to the two leaders will meet next week to set up groups to begin working together on the details of a reunification agreement and identify potential obstacles. Peter Millett, Britain’s High Commissioner in Cyprus, said: “It’s a sign that the two leaders have the political will to tackle the issues and work for a solution.”

Mr Christofias and Mr Talat are leftists with longstanding relations whose parties have promoted contacts across the divide. It was their first meeting since Mr Christofias came to power last month pledging to seek a workable solution “as fast as possible”. Peace talks have been stalled since 2004 when Greek Cypriots rejected a UN settlement plan they said favoured the Turkish side.

Ledra Street is to open as “soon as possible”. UN peacekeepers will clear the area of landmines and shore up derelict buildings.

The bustling pedestrianised thoroughfare is sundered in two by an eerie strip of no-man’s-land patrolled by British UN peacekeeping troops. The spot is a bizarre timewarp of long abandoned, bullet-pocked and crumbling buildings, some of them once elegant sandstone-built mansions whose only inhabitants today are stray cats, rats and weeds.

Across the divide, Ozay Mehmed, 65, a Turkish Cypriot who owns a clothes store, welcomed the news. “This island is too small to be divided,” he told The Times. “Both sides have suffered a lot in the past. These years apart have been good medicine for us all so that mistakes are not repeated.”

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