The Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot leaders meet next week in the buffer zone dividing the island in a bid to break peace talks deadlock, the government said on Thursday.

The informal talks on Monday between President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu will be the first time they have met to discuss the peace process which has been dormant for 19 months.

Anastasiades' government said in a statement that he invited Eroglu after the Turkish Cypriot leader called to pay his respects following the death of Greek Cypriot former president Glafcos Clerides, who was buried on Tuesday.

Anastasiades wrote to Eroglu saying: "We are at a critical juncture in the effort to give a decisive push to finally achieve a solution and we need to redouble our efforts to adopt the joint declaration."

The two will meet in the presence of UN officials at a restaurant on the Green Line to thrash out the terms of a joint statement outlining the objectives of revived Cyprus talks.

Negotiations to reunify Cyprus have stuttered over the wording of a joint statement by the leaders.

The fate of the long-divided Mediterranean island remains one of the major stumbling blocks in Turkish-EU negotiations.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops invaded and occupied its northern third after an Athens-engineered coup in Nicosia seeking to unite Cyprus with Greece.