"The government is taking very seriously into consideration the shocking content of the American report on our missing persons, but is not in a position to verify it," Foreign Minister George Lillikas was quoted as saying by the English-language Cyprus Mail.

"It is a human tragedy with many families of the missing persons involved, who suffer a lot more when such reports are published," Lillikas said, adding that he would pursue meetings with the report's authors once the full text had been viewed.

According to UN figures, an estimated 1,500 Greek Cypriots and 500 Turkish Cypriots have been reported missing following inter-communal clashes in 1963-64 and the Turkish invasion of 1974 which led to the division of the eastern Mediterranean island.

Published in September by the International Strategic Studies Association, a Virginia-based non-profit defense and strategic policy group, the report analyzed the "growing confrontation" between Turkey and separatist Kurdish PKK fighters.

The section on Cyprus cited unnamed "references" which "have not been confirmed or verified," and alleged that the experiments took place as many as 10 years after the Turkish invasion of the island.

"There were many references... that during 1984-1988 many missing Greek-Cypriots and Greek soldiers captured during the Turkish invasion in Cyprus in 1974 ended in the secret biochemical laboratories of the Turkish army and were used as guinea pigs."

The report "was done by a number of staffers based on field research largely from within Turkey," the group's director, Greg Copley, told AFP by phone from Alexandria, Virginia.

In addition to field reports, the "references" mentioned were "based on books and newspaper articles written at the time, articles in Western media and Greek media, also accounts given by Kurds who were in the same facility," he said.

"We have been hearing a lot of material from a lot of sources. When we couldn't get documentary reports we had to go with what people were reporting, firsthand knowledge of these facilities."

By going forward with publication, "we thought it might shake something up," he said.

Copley added that he had "already met with Cypriot government officials and more meetings are being discussed."

Cyprus has been partitioned since 1974, when Turkish troops occupied the north in response to an Athens-backed Greek Cypriot coup seeking union with Greece.

The breakaway Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, declared in 1983, is recognized only by Ankara.

The island's division remains a diplomatic headache for the European Union, which Cyprus joined in 2004 despite the lack of a reunification deal, and a major stumbling block for Turkey's bid to join the bloc.