The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, has said the stalled UN plan for the reunification of Cyprus remains the only means of reaching a settlement on the island before the Republic of Cyprus joins the EU in May.
Speaking after meeting the Cypriot Foreign Minister, Mr George Iacovou, in Dublin, Mr Cowen said compromises would be required from all sides in a renewed attempt to secure agreement before May.
He emphasised that the EU wanted Turkey to use its influence in the renewed search for an agreement.
However, while Mr Cowen said that he was encouraged by the latest effort to restart talks, Mr Iacovou said that the Cypriot and Turkish governments were "looking in exactly the opposite directions" in their approach to the talks.
The plan put forward by the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, would see the island reunified in a bizonal, bicommunal federation.
Mr Cowen said that the UN had a "central role" in the search for a settlement. "It is for the Secretary-General now to satisfy himself that the conditions are in place for the resumption of his mission," he said. "I would hope that in the days ahead all the parties can provide him with the necessary assurances of their determination to reach a settlement."
The time available for talks was short because the objective was to ask the island's people to endorse an agreement in a referendum before May.
Mr Cowen emphasised that Cyprus would enter the EU on May 1st if there was no agreement. He said that a settlement was not a precondition for the entry of Turkey into the EU. However, a solution before the EU decision at the end of this year on Turkey's membership application would be "greatly helpful".
Mr Iacovou said he had asked Mr Annan to convene a new round of talks. However, he asserted that it was "obvious" that the Turkish side did not accept the UN plan, "but only parts of it".
He said that the Cypriot government would not veto Turkish membership of the EU if no agreement was reached.
"This has led me to the conclusion that what the Turkish side is doing is an excellent communications exercise, excellent spin, to persuade people that they have changed their position. I say 'not fundamentally'. They have not changed their position fundamentally."
He added: "I hope they will be persuaded to come to the negotiating table and negotiate on the basis of the Annan plan in order to reach a settlement of the long-standing Cyprus problem."
Asked whether both sides could learn anything from the Northern Ireland peace process, Mr Iacovou said that there were similarities and differences.
"We have studied the process and I will venture to say that while here you had two governments who were looking in the same direction, on the question of Cyprus the Turkish government is looking in exactly the opposite direction, so it's a lot more different."