Greece and Turkey explore holding talks on maritime zones

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece and Turkey will explore whether they can start talks aimed at demarcating their maritime zones, Greece's foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

Neighbours Greece and Turkey, both NATO allies but historic foes, have been at odds for decades over a range of issues from airspace to maritime jurisdiction in the eastern Mediterranean and ethnically split Cyprus.

An agreement on where their maritime zones begin and end is important for determining rights over possible gas reserves and power infrastructure schemes.

Tensions have eased in recent years and both countries agreed last year to reboot their relations, pledging to keep open channels of communication and work on the issues that have kept them apart.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday and discussed bilateral ties, according to statements from the Turkish presidency and the Greek foreign ministry.

"The two leaders tasked the foreign ministers to explore whether conditions are favourable to initiate discussions on the demarcation of the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone," Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said.

Foreign ministers from the two countries will start preparations for a high-level meeting to take place in Ankara in January, the Greek prime minister's office said.

(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever in Ankara and Angeliki Koutantou in Athens; Editing by Christina Fincher)

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