The Greek Cypriot nationalists overwhelmed the small UN force manning the checkpoint east of the government-held town of Kato Pyrgos in a bid to reach their former homes in the Turkish-held village of Limnitis on the island's north coast, Justice Minister Doros Theodorou confirmed.

"Greek Cypriots tried to cross at Kato Pyrgos and the UN tried to stop them," the Greek Cypriot minister said.

Pictures from the scene carried by the privately run Mega TV channel showed a line of UN peacekeepers desperately forming a human chain in a bid to stop the demonstrators reaching Turkish army positions on the far side of the buffer zone.

A UN spokeswoman said the Greek Cypriots had crossed to the Turkish Cypriot side and had tried to hand in a petition.

"About 300 Greek Cypriots pushed their way through the checkpoint and UN personnel there did not stop them," Major Ingrid Tomekova told AFP.

"They walked to the northern checkpoint to hand in a petition and they (the Turks) told the Greek Cypriots to go back."

The area east of Limnitis up to the buffer zone has long been closed off to outsiders by the Turkish army, which maintains some 35,000 troops in the north of the island.

The demonstration was the first since Turkish Cypriot authorities eased restrictions on the entry of Greek Cypriots last Wednesday at three crossings through the buffer zone, one in the capital and two from a British base in the southeast of the island.

SPACE.WIRE