UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ personal envoy for Cyprus, Maria Angela Holguin, has cancelled planned visits to both New York and Cyprus for health reasons, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday.

Dujarric confirmed that Holguin had been due to travel to New York to meet Guterres before travelling to Cyprus.

“I can officially confirm that Holguin had to cancel her visit both to New York, where she was due to meet with the Secretary General, and to Cyprus,” he said.

Dujarric said the cancellations were due to “health reasons” and that Holguin would instead brief Guterres by telephone on her work.

He added that the UN envoy “remains in close contact with the leaders of both sides in Cyprus and their representatives”.

Holguin had been scheduled to visit Cyprus on Thursday after an earlier planned visit was postponed because of illness.

She had been expected to meet President Nikos Christodoulides and Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman during her visit.

The envoy had also been expected to remain on the island until the leaders’ next meeting, scheduled for September 16.

Christodoulides said on Saturday that he hoped a document setting out existing convergences on the Cyprus problem would be ready ahead of Holguin’s return.

He said the document could provide “a very good way for the talks to resume”, with the aim of preserving the negotiating acquis and eventually convening an expanded conference.