During his stay in Greece, the President of the Coordination Committee of the IOC, Dennis Oswald, will meet with Prime Minister Kostas Simitis at the "Maximos" Mansion, Minister of the Environment Planning and Public Works Vaso Papandreou and Gianna Agge lopoulou. He will also attend the customary press conference, where he will refer to the Olympic works.

This afternoon Mr. Iliesku will tour the facilities for the Olympics, while he will have consecutive meetings with the President of the Coalition of the Left, Nikos Konstantopoulos, Minister of Development Akis Tsohatzopoulos, and the President of new De mocracy Kostas Karamanlis. Later this evening, Mr. Stefanopoulos will hold a dinner in honor of Mr. Iliesku.

Tomorrow morning, the Romanian President will meet with the President of the Parliament, Apostolos Kaklamanis, at the Parliament building and in the afternoon a discussion with Prime Minister Kostas Simitis will take place. Later in the afternoon he will

meet with the Mayor of Athens Dimitris Avramopoulos, who will present him with the Golden Medal of the city.

On Friday, Mr. Iliesku will go to Crete. Among other places he will visit the Herakleion Archeological Museum and the Archeological area of Knossos, while he will meet with representatives of the Romanian community of the Island.

He also stressed that Greece offered to temporarily store and store the monuments in the museums and workshops of the Ministry of Culture, until local protection of these cultural items is possible.

Yesterday, Minister of Development Akis Tsohatzopoulos had a two-hour meeting with the Vice-President of the Russian government, Mrs. Valentina Matvienko, who is visiting Greece as the head of a party of Russian government officials, to prepare for Russi an President Vladimir Putin's visit to Athens, on December 6, and the signing of the "joint declaration of cooperation in the power sector".

From the meetings that have taken place so far, it seems that cooperation on natural gas is at the center of Russian interest: DEPA's request to procure further quantities of gas for the supply of energy production, was answered by the Russians, who comm itted to supply 6.1 billion c.m. to the borders of Greece - instead of the 2,8 billion c.m. that DEPA received so far.

Romanian Telecommunications Organization (Rom Telecom) by OTE, with an additional $50 million.

OTE's administration began new negotiations with the Romanian government in order to decide whether the amount of $50 million will be granted to the Romanian company either in the form of an increase in share capital or as a loan which will be convertibl e to shares. It should be reminded that the new investments planned by OTE in Romania reach $300 million. N. Manasis was also authorized to find a solution through settlement with mobile telephony companies, as far as interconnection costs are concerned, which are contending for the amount of 9.3 billion drs.

In their meeting both agreed that there is a need to upgrade bilateral relations by activating the Economic and Technical Cooperation Bilateral Agreement.

Mr. Zafiropoulos briefed Mr. Musyoka on Greece's willingness to train public sector employees from Kenya, especially in the sector of tourism, and offer assistance to the sectors of public health and agriculture. The Greek undersecretary also stressed th at the development of the Sub-Saharan Africa should be boosted aimed at the overall upgrading of the region.

Mr. Dris stated in an Athens radio interview that the farmers must coordinate their action and made qualitative changes in their primary product to make it internationally competitive.

On the tobacco issue and the cotton policy the southern European countries namely, Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal created a strong front in the EU.

The European subsidies on every farm product are expected to be discussed in the EU Budget Council today. The farmers are in a wait-and-see state expecting the final prices of their product to be announced, while they continue the regional meetings to de cide on the future form of their mobilizations.

According to comments on German newspapers, Theodorakis is not just one famous music composer and a symbol of freedom struggles but a truly charismatic narrator, while the book is characterized as a fascinating panorama of the Greek history.

In an Austrian newspaper, Theodorakis' autobiography tops the list of the proposed books.

The new state budget provides, among others, for tax revenues increases of 6.1% or 689 billion drachmas compared to last year. A special effort will be made to collect taxes of past years which are expected to be increased by 19.7%. Spending will be incr eased with a 5.4% rate compared to 2001, while the growth rate will be at 3.8%.

In statements he made in the cabinet meeting, Mr. Simitis pointed out that there is a feeling of security in the country concerning the course of the economy and this feeling must be preserved. He also said that measures must be taken to secure a better future for the Greek citizens to be able to feel a new national self-confidence.

On the right-wing main opposition party of New Democracy proposal for the establishment of an inquiry committee on the issue of the state company DEKA and its activities in the Athens Stock Exchange during the pre-election period, Mr. Simitis said that i t is a diversion move and added that New Democracy will have to give a responsible response in parliament.

Government spokesman Christos Protopapas characterized the new state budget as pro-development, stressing that the government's commitments for the strengthening of the weaker social classes will materialize.

Of the stocks trading today, 280 recorded gains and 67 had losses, while the value of 15 stocks remained unchanged.

The memorandum of understanding confirms the intention of both sides to proceed with the privatization of Banc Post as provided by an agreement signed on April 2, 1999 and reformed on September 21, 2000.

Banc Post is one of the largest banks in Romania with a network of 126 branches and 2.650 sales points, through its cooperation with the Romanian Postal Service. It operates the largest network of automatic bank transactions machines and it is the bigges t credit card issuer in Romania.

EFG Eurobank Ergasias jointly with Banco Portugues de Investimento, which is also a Banc Post shareholder, back the plan for its development aimed at making it a financial organization that offers high quality services in the Romanian banking sector.

In a meeting they had today in the Presidential Mansion they discussed the prospects for the further strengthening of the Greek-Romanian cooperation both at a bilateral level and within the framework of international organizations like, the OSCE.

They examined the situation in Yugoslavia, on which Athens and Bucharest have "about the same stance", according to the Romanian President, while they also discussed ways to combat crime.

In addition, they tackled issues concerning bilateral economic cooperation as Greece is Romania' ninth largest trade partner.

In statements he made after the meeting, Mr. Iliescu referred to the efforts made by his country to become a member of the European "family" and to the recent statements made by French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine, that there is a need for all 12 cand idate states to become EU members, among them Romania. He stated characteristically that Romania is aware of the fact that still a lot of work needs to be done for the Romanian economy to be improved, adding that greater assistance is necessary on behalf of the EU.

Mr. Stephanopoulos characterized the Vedrine statement as "positive" pointing out, however, that the delay in Bucharest's EU accession course is the result of the delay observed in the development of the Romanian economy.

The Greek President stated that Greece will help Romania but it is up to it to increase its growth rate.

During an exceptionally long, both for Azerbaijan's political customs as well as for the President's age, who is now entering the 9th decade of his life, meeting of 105 minutes, Mr. Magriotis communicated the unequivocal Greek position that agreements of

cooperation and traditional friendliness between countries through time, do not constitute axes or poles that turn against other countries.

Entertaining the worries expressed at the press conference over Greece's defensive cooperation with Armenia, Mr. Magriotis categorically stressed that Athens has submitted a similar agreement outline to Baku, and is still waiting for its answer, remindin g that the first steps towards a bilateral military agreement had been taken with Mr. Tsohatzopoulos' visit, which have already given some results.

It should be noted that the name of FYROM was also discussed at the meeting the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the two countries, Giorgos Papandreou and Ilinka Mitreva, had in the margin of the UN General Assembly.

"In their interpositions, all countries expressed a wish to participate, they offered specific army, navy and air forces as their participation, and thus the common will of all European countries to build this defense and security system, has been confir med". Stressed Minister of National Defense Giannon Papantoniou, addidng that the Greek delegation pointed out the importance of this fact.

The ministers stressed that the Euroarmy must cover the needs of the long war against terrorism, as Mr. Papantoniou stated, in a joint press conference with replacement Minister of Foreign Affairs Tasos Giannitsis. He also noted that in all interruptions

the importance of broadening the defensive capabilities of Europe was stressed, and there were also references to the threat of international terrorism.

Participation in the Eurodefense - to the extent of its capabilities - was announced by Cyprus. Mr. Papantoniou noted that Turkey repeated an observation it had made last year and the year before that, as far as the participation of the Cypriot Republic in the joint defense of Europe is concerned, and received the imperative answer from the Belgian Presidency, stating that the issue is out of place, irrelevant and unfounded.

Mr. Giannitsis underlined that developments in the Balkans and the immediate area during the past few years, as much as recent developments during the past few weeks, as well as the pressures developing in the middle East, have led to the acceleration o f developing a Common Foreign Policy and Defense.

He also stressed that the attempts made by the EU in the Balkan region lately, showed that there can be results.

Mr. Magriotis met with Azeri President Mr. Aliyev with whom he had a two-hour meeting that covered the entire spectrum of bilateral relations and regional issues, while he conveyed an invitation to him by Greek President Kostis Stephanopoulos to visit Gr eece. The invitation was accepted.

Mr. Magriotis also met with Prime Minister Mr. Rasizade with whom he discussed issues of economic cooperation, while in the meetings he had with Foreign Minister Guliyev and Undersecretaries Khalafov and Mammed Guliyev and Development Minister F. Aliyev were discussed political, economic, and educational issues on which they reached an agreement on a specific framework of cooperation. They also discussed the initiatives Greece will undertake concerning the wider region when it will take over the EU rotat ing presidency in 2003, in addition they discussed Azerbaijan's relations with international organizations and the new international situation created after the terrorist attack on the United States.

Mr. Magriotis visited Bacu's mayor and the Slav University which has a Greek Language Department, while he inaugurated the new building housing the Greek embassy and the offices of the Greek community.

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