Former president of Cyprus dies of cancer

NICOSIA, Cyprus, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- Tassos Papadopoulos, who lost a bid this year for another term as president of Cyprus, died Friday of lung cancer in a Nicosia hospital.

Papadopoulos, 74, had been in the intensive care unit at Nicosia General Hospital since late November, the Athens News Agency reported.

During his tenure as president from 2003 to last February, Papadopoulos opposed a plan to settle the division of Cyprus into Greek and Turkish sectors drafted by former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Encouraging voters to reject the plan in a referendum, he said, "I received a state; I will not deliver a community."

Papadopoulos became a political activist as a law student in London in the early 1950s. After his return to Cyprus, he participated in the struggle against British rule and served as a delegate to the 1959 London conference on the island's future.

He became minister of labor after independence at the age of 25.

Papadopoulos was imprisoned briefly after the 1974 coup that overthrew the government of Archbishop Makarios. He participated in talks that led to the partition of the island.

He is survived by his wife, Fotini Michaelides, two children and two step-children.