Athens News Agency: News in English, 06-02-10

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] PM to meet telecoms authorities over phone-tapping affair

[02] Informal NATO defence ministers conference

[03] Karamanlis-Merkel meeting next Wednesday

[04] EU unveils anti-bird flu measures for Greece

[01] PM to meet telecoms authorities over phone-tapping affair

In addition, the prime minister has also arranged to meet with six legal experts on Monday in order to discuss ways in which to strengthen the legal framework for protecting telecommunications and intends to set up a committee to assess their proposals, Antonaros announced.

He also stressed that the premier clearly supported the appropriate authorities so that they could do their work as well as possible.

Asked to comment on the absence of Public Order Minister George Voulgarakis from the meetings, Antonaros said that the specific committees came under the remit of the two ministers that were called to be present.

Antonaros reiterated that the government had acted responsibly and within the law in the phone-tapping affair, handing the case over to justice immediately and informing Parliament about it in depth at the correct time, while the ministers responsible had informed the public.

He also noted that discussion in Parliament on this issue following questions put for Karamanlis had not been cancelled but merely postponed until next Friday.

Asked why the ADAE had not been informed, the spokesman replied that this "was not the government's obligation". He also denied that the government had additional lists of people whose phones had been tapped, noting that all the facts at the government's disposal had been made public.

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[02] Informal NATO defence ministers conference

He also called for the adoption of the possibility of member-states to revise their relevant commitments every two years, in accordance with the force's needs.

As regards cooperation with Mediterranean Dialogue countries, Spiliotopoulos expressed support for its deepening in the military sector and announced the holding again this year of the aeronautical exercise codenamed "Dolphin", which Greece had held for the first time last year with the participation of military forces from Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia.

The minister also referred to Greece's participation in the multinational security force in Afghanistan and announced the training of six Iraqi military doctors at Greek military hospitals in the coming months.

Spiliotopoulos reiterated Greece's active support for the further strengthening of cooperation between NATO and Russia and its intention to host, at the Souda Naval Base, Russian warships that will be participating in the "Active Endeavour" operation.

Spiliotopoulos met on the sidelines of the conference with Russia's Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov, whom he invited to pay an official visit to Greece in the second half of the year. He also met his counterparts from Israel and Britain Shaul Mofaz and John Reed. Talks focused on issues concerning bilateral political and military cooperation and international developments.

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[03] Karamanlis-Merkel meeting next Wednesday

BERLIN (ANA - P. Stangos) The office of German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday officially announced an upcoming meeting between Merkel and Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis next Wednesday, February 15. The announcement said they will discuss issues concerning bilateral relations, and matters of international and European politics.

According to the announcement, Karamanlis and Merkel will hold a joint press conference after 15 minutes of private talks, after which there will be a meeting between Greek and German delegations.

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[04] EU unveils anti-bird flu measures for Greece

The European Commission on Friday announced the measures that Greece must take to protect against the spread of bird flu, after samples taken from three wild swans in northern Greece tested positive for the H5 virus. A spokesman for European Commissioner for health Markos Kyprianou, Philip Todd, said the course of action decided had already been discussed and agreed with Greek authorities.

The course of action essentially called for establishing two zones around the area where the three wild swans were found dead.

The first zone will be protective and have a radius of three kilometres, within which strict measures will be enforced. This will include the obligatory confinement of all poultry within closed facilities and disinfection measures. Poultry will be forbidden to leave poultry farms in this zone except when they are being taken to be slaughtered, while outdoor poultry markets will be forbidden.

The second, outer zone will be a "monitoring" zone and have a radius of 10 kilometres. Here again, there will be restrictions on the movement of poultry and a ban on outdoor poultry markets, as well as a ban on hunting.

According to the Commission, it was the job of Greek authorities to locate the poultry farms in the two zones and to take measures to inform poultry farm staff of the measures.

Todd said the situation would be reviewed by a special EU scientists committee next Wednesday, when the Community Reference Laboratory (CRL) in Weybridge had announced the results of further tests on the suspect samples to locate the deadly H5N1 form of the virus.

If the samples were negative for H5N1 then the measures might be lifted, while if they were positive the measures would be extended for 21 days in the first zone and 30 days in the second zone, he added.

The spokesman said that there were no plans at present to send Community experts to Greece and that this would only happen if the Greek government decided it was necessary.

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