Cyprus would consider an offer by Turkey to supply water to the northern island if it did not involve recognition of the northern breakaway state, said a Cyprus official in Nicosia on January 20.

"We are positive, provided there is not direct or indirect recognition of the pseudo-state," government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said on Wednesday.

Reports said that an international consortium led by the Istanbul-based Alsim-Alarko Company will begin building the underwater pipeline sometime after June 30 this year. "We are planning to start construction in six months," said Ishak Alaton, chairman of Alsim-Alarko.

Alaton said his company had been awarded the project in 1998 by a Turkish cabinet decree.

Reports suggest that the pipeline project was part of Turkey's goodwill gesture to Cyprus to facilitate the Cyprus peace talks.

Alaton said the "peace water project" had won US approval for its potential to promote peace between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots under the current climate of rapprochement.

The 78-kilometre pipeline would have an annual throughput capacity of 75 million cubic metres, much more than the amount needed by the northern Cyprus. The surplus could be offered to the southern Greek Cypriot area.

However, no such an official offer has been made so far either by Turkey or by the northern Cyprus regime.

Cyprus has remained divided into the Turkish Cypriots-controlled north and the Greek Cypriots-dominated south since 1974 when Turkey invaded and occupied the northern third of the island in the wake of a failed coup seeking union with Athens.

Water shortage is a long-standing problem on the island. The Cyprus government has been taking water rationing measures for several years.