At 9:30am Prime Minister Simitis met with the Secretary General of NATO, Lord George Robertson, at the Parliament.

The meeting is taking place under the weight of compiling the budget, as there is a great delay in income, as well as large exceeding of expenses.

This afternoon, Mr. Simitis will meet with high representative of the European Union on Joint Foreign Policy and Defense Issues, Xavier Solana.

The speakers stressed the importance of peace in the Middle East for the promotion of cooperation and business in the broader region of Southeastern Europe.

In his speech, Secretary General of NATO, George Robertson praised EU and NATO cooperation in the Balkans and especially FYROM, where, he said, broader conflict and civil war were avoided, and the restructure procedure has begun.

Mr. Robertson stressed that at the NATO meeting in Prague in November, the final obstacles in the full cooperation of NATO and the EU must be removed.

On his side, Foreign Secretary Giorgos Papandreou pointed out that the EU, the US, the UN and Russia, are trying to stop the conflict in the Middle East.

US Ambassador to Greece Thomas Miller, mentioned that the EU is trying to deal with the reservations of the Greek side concerning the Euroarmy. Regarding the situation in the Middle East, he underlined that US Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit, "ac hieved some progress".

At 11am an event will take place in the lecture room of the Company of Macedonian Studies. Greeting speeches will be addressed by the Minister of Macedonia-Thrace, Giorgos Paschalidis, the Ambassador of the Republic of Armenia, Prefect Kostas Papadopoulo s, Mayor Vasilis Papageorgopoulos, and the representative of the Armenian Youth. Journalist Alexis Papahelas will make a speech entitled: "Historical truth and modern realities. Turkey's case".

At 1pm wreaths will be lain at the war memorial of the 3rd Army Corps. On Wednesday April 24, a memorial service will be held at the Orthodox Armenian church of the Holy Mother.

Mr. Robertson pointed out that in the case of a collective problem a collective solution is necessary.

In statements he made to reporters, Mr. Robertson said that he thanked Prime Minister Simitis for the support of the Greek government to the cooperation relation between NATO and Russia and praised Greece's work in the Balkans. He said that Greece has a big influence in southeastern Europe and later today the Defense Ministers of the Balkan states will meet in Athens to discuss the initiatives that will contribute to the strengthening of stability in this sensitive region.

Prime Minister Simitis also referred to the cooperation between NATO and Russia, stressing that Greece always believed that a closer contact and cooperation is necessary for security in Europe. He said that an effort must be made for peace and cooperatio n in the Balkans.

He also raised to Mr. Robertson the issue of the Middle East and stated that they agreed that an effort must be made for peace in the region. He said that they discussed in detail the issue of the European defense and security (ESDP), and the problem of cooperation between the EU and the NATO states that are not EU members.

Mr. Simitis stated that Greece rejects the so-called Ankara text, adding that other solutions must be found for the EU to be able to use NATO's means.

Specifically, industrial production in the Euro-zone in February increased by 0.2% compared to January and dropped by 3.3% compared to the same period last year.

The Greek Public Gas Company proclaimed the opening of a competition of bids for those companies that are interested in taking over the construction of the project scheduled to start in January 2003 and will be completed in June 2004.

The above were stated by European Commission Vice-President Loyola de Palacio responding to a question by Greek Euro-deputy Antonis Trakatelis, elected with the right-wing main opposition party of New Democracy. The question was made on the occasion of t he OA management decision to cut three direct foreign flights to and from Thessaloniki.

Of the stocks trading today, 133 had gains and 159 had losses, while the value of 85 stocks remained unchanged.

The ND leader stated that his party backs the Saudi Arabia proposal for an international conference on the Palestinian issue with the participation of the EU and the United States. He also condemned violence regardless of its origin, stressing that there

can be no peace through aggressive statements or through statements for future attacks.

Referring to the Euro-army issue, Mr. Karamanlis stated that certain parts of the US-British text serve Turkey and stressed that no Greek government will ever sign such a text. He said that the terms demanded by Turkey to be included in the specific text

create negative suspicions instead of positive prospects.

On the Cyprus issue, the New Democracy leader stated that Greece will not agree on the EU enlargement if Cyprus is not included in the first wave of the candidate states that will become EU members. He also referred to the situation in the Balkans and un derlined the need for peace and stability in the region which can be achieved through the economic cooperation of the region's states.

Mr. Simitis stated that in the past six years the economic growth rate in Greece is higher than the EU economic growth rate and as a result the per capita income for the Greeks increased from 64% of the EU average in 1993 to 71% in 2001.

He added that an important work has already been done but there is still a lot of work that needs to be done to further accelerate the procedure for real convergence.

Mr. Simitis stated that there is a world economic recession but Greece is an exception. Its growth rate is 3.8% namely, more than double the EU average.

Responding to a question on the role of the US to the solution of the Cyprus problem and the threats of Turkey in case Cyprus becomes an EU member, Mr. Kaklamanis expressed the belief that the US has the power to make Turkey respect the UN Security Counc il decisions. The US, said Mr. Kaklamanis, is inactive regarding the problem of the Turkish occupation of Cyprus.

Mr. Kaklamanis also stressed that the Greek-Americans work hard to contribute in a decisive way to the organized and systematic promotion of the Greek national issues.

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