At 11am, Mr. Dimitrios spoke to the parliamentary councils of Hellenism and Orthodoxy Abroad in the Parliament, and then he met with the Minister of Education, Petros Efthymiou.

Following that, the Archbishop will meet with the President of the Republic Kostis Stefanopoulos. In the afternoon he will be present in an event of Athens University.

In an announcement it made this morning, the Employees Association of Alpha Bank called the staff members of Ethniki "to seek out those amongst them that are seeking a safe little position through the merger of the two banks.

On the other hand the Board of Directors of Ethniki met today, and appreciated that there are certain problems, but no final decisions have been made that would endanger the merger of the two credit institutions.

According to the Employee Association of Alpha Bank, its Board of Directors will meet tomorrow in order to make its final decisions.

According to information, the Director of Ethniki, Mr. Th. Karatzas, and the President of Alpha Bank, Mr. G. Kostopoulos, exchanged letters during the weekend, in which they accepted that there are problems with the merger procedure.

The exchange of letters between the two bank Heads, strengthens the version that wants the unions of the two banks merely at the tip of the iceberg, since Alpha Bank had kept lines of communications open, with banks abroad that had expressed an interest in it in the past.

An intervention was attempted, with no apparent results so far, by the Minister of Economy and Finances, Nikos Christodoulakis.

In any case, outcome of the situation whatever it may be, cannot be foreseen, since a final rupture in the deal of the two major banks, will have multiple financial and political effects.

In the meanwhile, the banks' stock value closed at -3.23% for Alpha Bank (at 18.56 euro) and 3.69% (at 24.5 euro).

The role of BNP Paribas

An important role in developments - according to information - will be played by the recommencing of discussions between Alpha Bank and BNP Paribas, concerning a possible cooperation between them, which was terminated in September. Similar contacts seem to be being made with the Italian Unicredito. Final decisions concerning the issue are expected to be announced at the emergency meeting of its board of directors of Alpha Bank, which will take place tomorrow.

However, government staff members estimate that the budget for the preparation of the Olympics will need a lot of time in order for it to be finalized, if one takes into consideration that the studies on the Olympic works in Faliro, Elliniko and Goudi ha ve not been completed yet.

A characteristic of the efforts to redistribute funds attempted by the government, in order for the maximum expenditure of 4,372,707.26 euro to be kept, it the Calatrava study for the refashioning of the OAKA stadium, as is mentioned in press publicatio ns. It should be noted that the specific study surpasses 176,082,171.68 euro.

According to MR. Venizelos, carrying out only part of the work is still under consideration, the part concerning the covering of the Olympic Stadium, at a cost of 73,367,571.53 euro, or a larger part (covering the cycling track) at a cost of 132,061,628. 76 euro.

During today's joint session of the Commissioners of Hellenism and Orthodoxy Abroad, in the presence of the Archbishop of America Dimitrios, the President of the Parliament, Apostolos Kaklamanis underlined that "Greece supports many hopes in the contribu tion, the role and the activities of the Greek community in national issues".

Referring, more specifically, to the Cyprus issue, Mr. Kaklamanis stressed that "the support of Greek communities abroad has an especially heavy hand in convincing the only 'superpower' in the world, that the least it should do, is to keep impartiality o n the issue".

"For us, the only problem is the violation of International LAw and the continuing Turkish occupation", he characteristically noted, and added that "efforts to incorporate Cyprus to the EU must be sincere and should not be downgraded.

On his side, Archbishop Dimitrios assured that all national issues and the progress of Hellenism have literally bound up all of the Greek community's time and the community's contribution.

He also, once more, thanked the contribution of the Greek Parliament, not just for the amount raised, but for its symbolic importance, since it is the first support offered for the victims of the families, that was given in euro at this historic moment i n Greece.

the same period in 2000.

The new customers with a contract for the new quarter, came to 74,174, increased by 272.8% compared to 2000, while new users of mobile card-telephony surpassed 71,170. In total in 2001, TELESTET had 1,472,575 users of mobile card telephony (69% of the cl ientele), while customers with contracts came to 662,763.

Mr. Simitis briefed Mr. Stephanopoulos on his visit to the United States and stated that it was successful because it strengthened the basis of the Greek-US cooperation.

Exiting the presidential building, Mr. Simitis told reporters that it is time for Greece to undertake initiatives on foreign policy issues. He said that such initiatives are necessary because the Cyprus-EU talks on Cyprus' EU accession are at their final

phase, the Greek Cypriot and the Turkish Cypriot talks are in progress, and Turkey should undertake initiatives on the continental shelf issue by the year 2004 at the latest. He added that there are security and cooperation issues in the Balkans and for this reason he will visit the Balkan countries in the following months.

Mr. Simitis praised the new General Staff chiefs in the Army and the Air Force and referred to the need for the reorganization of the armed forces.

On the new Army General Staff Chief lieutenant general Panagiotis Harvalas stated that he has a great experience and has worked for the reorganization of the army, while on the new Air Force General Staff chief lieutenant wing-commander Panagiotis Papani kolaou stated that he is very able.

In a joint statement issued at noon, the two managements stressed that the difficulties will be overcome through mutual understanding and good faith. They also underlined that the goal is to establish a strong Greek bank for the benefit of the national e conomy, the stockholders and the employees in the two banks.

The part of the statement that concerns the way the new bank will operate namely, based on private sector economic criteria, in essence dissolves the fears of the Alpha Bank management that the new money and credit institution, that will result from the merger, will be under state control.

of the Prime Minister or any other government official.

Mr. Protopapas stated that it is not the responsibility of the government to intervene in the issue but it follows developments closely because it is an issue that concerns the country's economy in general.

The talks are being handled by the management of the National Bank of Greece and Alpha Bank for the operational plan and merger to proceed.

Mr. Protopapas expressed optimism that things will follow a positive course, stressing that everybody wants a positive development in the Greek banking system.

The visit will focus mainly on the sectors of farming equipment, building materials, telecommunications materials, plastics and textile.

Of the stocks trading today, 152 recorded gains and 140 had losses, while the value of 62 stocks remained unchanged.

The above were announced by Parliament President Apostolos Kaklamanis in the joint meeting of the Committees on the Greeks Abroad and Orthodoxy that was held today in the presence of Archbishop Dimitrios of America.

From his side, the Archbishop stressed that the Greeks living abroad are dedicated to the promotion of the issues of national importance and hellenism.

Greek Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos stated that Greece is not interested in the legal aspect of the dispute and it simply wants the marbles to be returned to their natural place.