Dimitris Christofias said the privately funded monument to 371 servicemen killed during Greek Cypriot resistance to British colonial rule in the 1950s should not have been built on Cyprus at all.

"They could very well have built memorials in Britain instead," Christofias said.

Many Greek Cypriots saw the memorial's chosen location in the rival Turkish Cypriot north as a deliberate slight.

Foreign Minister Markos Kyprianou said the memorial demonstrates "a lack of respect" towards Greek Cypriot sentiment about the resistance.

Cyprus was a British colony from 1914 to 1960. The Mediterranean island has been divided into a Greek Cypriot south _ seat of the island's internationally recognized government _ and a Turkish Cypriot north since Turkey invaded in 1974 after a coup aimed to unite the island with Greece.

Christofias also said he regretted British High Commissioner Peter Millett's presence Sunday at the memorial's unveiling in the town of Kyrenia, and would raise the issue with British authorities.

But the British High Commission said Millett simply laid a wreath during the private ceremony.

"The ceremony was solely devoted to those who died in the service of their country. Every nation has the duty to remember its fallen soldiers," the High Commission said in an e-mail message.