NICOSIA, Cyprus >> A meeting between the two leaders in ethnically divided Cyprus ended without an agreement Monday, with both sides failing to reach a decision on a deal aimed at building trust that included opening new crossing points across a U.N.-controlled buffer zone.

Nicos Christodoulides, the country’s Greek Cypriot president, and Ersin Tatar, leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots, said in a joint statement that they have instructed their representatives to continue talks and that they would meet “in the coming days.”

The leaders met for nearly two hours at the official residence of Colin Stewart, the U.N. peacekeeping force’s chief of mission in Cyprus, to hammer out an agreement on opening new crossing points at specific points along a 120-mile U.N.-controlled buffer zone that cuts across the island.

But the leaders left the meeting without announcing any crossing point openings. They affirmed in the joint statement that they “both believe that opening of new crossing points is critical to promote people-to-people contacts, strengthen economic ties and build trust.”

The dispute appears to be over the location of the crossing points, which would be of mutual benefit. Christodoulides said after the meeting that Tatar rejected a specific crossing point location and “wasn’t ready” to agree on a package of eight trust-building initiatives that included the setting up of joint committees on youth affairs, as well as a Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

“Everything depends on when the Turkish side is ready,” Christodoulides said.