share: digg facebook twitter NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A U.S. energy firm has begun exploratory drilling for oil and gas off the coast of Cyprus despite strong warnings from Turkey not to do so. Cypriot energy chief Solon Kassinis told The Associated Press on Monday that workers on a Noble rig have already drilled 260 feet (80 meters) beneath the seabed about 115 miles (185 kilometers) off the island's southern coast. The area in question is near sizable gas finds within Israeli waters, and within Cyprus' exclusive economic zone — an area marked out following agreements with Egypt, Israel and Lebanon delineating Mediterranean undersea borders to facilitate the search for mineral deposits. Cyprus' President Dimitris Christofias on Sunday accused Turkey and Turkish Cypriots of "clamoring needlessly," saying it would take another year until experts can determine the quality of the deposits and the feasibility of extracting them. Turkey has also renewed threats to freeze all ties with the European Union if Cyprus is allowed to assume the presidency of the 27-nation group next July before a settlement that would allow the Turkish north to be a legitimate representative of the reunified state.

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