The vibration worried all the islands' residents, without, however, causing panic. So far, no injuries or damages have been reported in the Dodecanese or Crete.

As the General Secretariat for Civilian Protection announced, orders have been given to the police to patrol the islands and look for damages. The Secretary General of Civilian Protection contacted Minister and Deputy Minister of the Interior, Kosta Skan dalidi and Lambro Papadima, in order to inform them of the situation.

However, the Vice-President of the IOC criticized certain points of Greece's preparations. As far as hospitality is concerned, he stressed that Greece is 3.000 beds short, and he pointed out the delays in the Elliniko and Falliro works. He also asked tha t the creation of three lanes be created on Kifisias Avenue.

Today Mr. Oswald is having consecutive meetings with the Ministers of PEHODE (Environment, Planning and Public Works), Vaso Papandreou, Culture, Evaggelos Venizelos, Development, Akis Tsohatzopoulos, Transportations, Christos Verelis, and Deputy Labor Mi nister, Lefteris Jiolas.

Later in the day, Mr. Oswald will hold a press conference on the progress of the Olympic preparations. However the delegation of the International Olympic Committee seems satisfied from the progress so far.

Sofia is the first stop of the Prime Minister's Balkan tour, who is taking initiative in issues of foreign policy, aiming at strengthening Greece's international position as a factor of peace and cooperation in the broader region.

The President of the Parliament, Apostosolo Kaklamanis, referred to the contribution of EDA members, underlining that their visions and ideas belong to the future. "EDA was a corner stone in my opinion, in the course for stability in political life and o ur national life, and democratization", he pointed out.

The Secretary General of PASOK, Kostas Laliotis, made an opening to the parties of the Left during his speech: "We can, through reliable discussion, create terms of policy convergence, policy cooperation, policy solidarity, in social contexts, institutio ns, and why not, in governing", he noted.

Former MP and member of the Executive Committee, Leonidas Kirkos, spoke of the contribution of EDA: "EDA, defending the front of evenness, the only progressive, truly revolutionary front at the time, was also seeking to broaden its alliances on a social and political level", he mentioned.

The President of New Democracy, Kostas Karamanlis, congratulated the Coalition of the Left and its President Nikos Konstantopoulos, for the forming of the "Initiative Committee for EDA's 50th Anniversary", and thanked the Committee and its President Mano lis Glezos, who addressed an invitation to him.

"The presence of all of us, as a separate event, may be the greatest, and surely the one we owe to them the most, form of tribute to those who believed and fought for principles and values. For freedom, the restructuring of the country, national reconcil iation. We honor faith and perseverance. We honor the action that developed with the belief of a contribution", he said.

Indicative of the caution displayed by the Greek businessmen is the fact that almost no Greek investments were made in Georgia during the past year. The only exception was the LOBAT Ltd company, which created a production unit for timber processing and e xport in the region of Senaki.

However, in spite of the disadvantages observed in the Georgian market nobody can dispute the fact that it has several advantages such as, access to a region with tens of millions of consumers and potential buyers of Greek products.

the sea region between the islands of Astipalea and Kos in southeastern Aegean.

According to statements he made to MPA, assistant seismology professor Dimitris Panagiotopoulos stated that the epicenter of the earthquake was in a depth of 70 kilometers at the southeastern tip of the "Greek Arc". Usually, the earthquakes that come fro m such depth do not give strong aftershocks but still the phenomenon will have to be observed for the next 48 hours to be able to reach safe conclusions.

The earthquake was felt in the Aegean Sea region and in regions at the Greek mainland as well as, Cyprus but no damages were recorded.

For the record, in August 1926 a catastrophic earthquake measuring 8 on the Richter scale, coming from a depth of 120 kilometers, shook the sea region off the coasts of the southeastern Aegean island of Rhodes. It was one of the deadliest earthquakes eve r recorded in he wider Greek region since ancient times.

Of the stocks trading today, 237 recorded gains and 85 had losses, while the value of 38 stocks remained unchanged.

Mr. Karamanlis accused the government of adopting a compromise position in the Greek-Turkish relations and of handling the failed merger of the National Bank of Greece with Alpha Bank in a thoughtless manner. He said that ND backs Turkey's European prosp ect but this will mean that Turkey should adjust to the European standards. He also criticized the government's stance on the issue of the Euro-army and pointed out that major issues of national importance are at stake.

On the Cyprus issue, he said that the Turkish Cypriot side has adopted a different approach and the question is if this is a real change of policy or a communication trick. He called on the Greek government to make it clear to the EU partners that there can be no EU enlargement without the participation of Cyprus and expressed the belief that the Cyprus EU accession can take place during the EU presidency in the first half of 2003.

On the merger attempt by the National Bank of Greece and Alpha Bank, he said that his party had expressed reservations from the beginning which have been confirmed, adding that the developments have proved that there are big political responsibilities.

On the 2004 Olympic Games preparations, Mr. Karamanlis stressed that International Olympic Committee (IOC) Coordinating Committee president Dennis Oswald and other members of the IOC use the tongue of diplomacy but still their concern is obvious.

Regarding terrorism, he said that the lack of effectiveness can be dealt with seriousness and not through the issuing of declarations.

Initially, the Geo-dynamic Institute in Athens had announced that the earthquake measured 5.9 on the Richter scale, while the Seismology Institute in Patras had measured it at 6.2 on the Richter scale. According to the Aristotle University of Thessalonik i Geo-physics Laboratory, the earthquake was between 6.3 and 6.4 on the Richter scale.

According to scientists, there is no agreement on the size of the earthquake because its epicenter was not close to the earth's surface.

Mr. Parvanov swore-in during the weekend and today he formally took over his duties as Bulgarian President. The 44yearold Parvanov, who won the presidential elections last November, has as a main goal the speeding up of the procedure for his country's ac cession into the European Union.

Former Bulgarian President Petar Stoyanov also attended the ceremony and earlier he had a meeting with the current president.

Bulgaria together with the neighboring Romania is among the 12 former Communist countries, which are EU candidates.

According to the Albanian mass media, a Greek military helicopter participates in an aid mission supplying with food and staple commodities the regions of northern and northeaster Albania hit by extremely bad weather.

Mr. Simitis responded to questions by reporters on the latest statements made by Turkish Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit and stressed that Greece is firm on the policy of initiatives and dialogue it has been exercising for a long time.

Later this afternoon, Mr. Simitis will meet with President Georgi Parvanov, while he will attend the proceedings of a business conference held with the participation of Greek businessmen.

Mr. Simitis welcomed Bulgaria's agreement with the EU to shut down the four nuclear reactors of the Kozloduy nuclear plant. On the issue, the Bulgarian Prime Minister expressed his country's intention to shut down the first two nuclear reactors by the en d of the year, while the other two will be closed based on a timetable. On the Burgas-Alexandroupolis oil pipeline, the Greek Prime Minister stated that it has entered its final phase. He said that the only thing that remains to be done is a tripartite meeting of the responsible agencies from Greece, Bulgaria and Russia to di scuss economic and technical issues.

On the Greek-Bulgarian relations, the two Prime Ministers stated that there is room for further improvement and expressed their common will to contribute to the efforts for the promotion of stability in the Balkans.

Meanwhile, the draft bill that will promote the Greek plan for the economic reconstruction of the Balkans was given to publicity in Sofia. The plan, that will be materialized by the Greek Foreign Ministry, will last from 2002 to 2006 and provides for 550

million Euro credits to fund projects, investments and actions in Bulgaria, Albania, Yugoslavia, FYROM and Romania.

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