works of which began this morning at the Hyatt hotel in Thessaloniki.

The convention has been organized by the Ministries of National Defense and Macedonia-Thrace, in cooperation with the US and US embassies and the Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce. Speeches will be made by the Ministers of Macedonia-Thrace, National Defense and Public Order, US Ambassador Thomas Miller, and UK Ambassador David Madden.

Speakers at the convention include Vice-President of the Serb Government Zarko Korac, Romanian Secretary of State, Head of the Department for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Defense Politics George Cristian Maior, Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe Erhard Busek, the President for the Center of Democracy and Reconciliation in SE Europe, Richard Schifter, International Law experts, analysts and organization consultants.

"The Prime Minister stood by me both in the various scenarios and during my sickness", stressed MR. Papandreou, referring to the flu he contracted during the Foreign Ministers' meeting in Reykjavik.

The Foreign Minister characterized the succession scenarios as "untimely" and "ill-opportuned". "They arise deterministically and depending on developments", he added.

Furthermore, he made it clear that he is not under pressure to take initiative. "No one is pressuring me. I have made public statements, I'm not playing on two boards".

It should be noted that Mr. Papandreou will meet with the Prime Minister tomorrow at the "Maximos Mansion" tomorrow at 7pm, in order to discuss developments in foreign policy.

At 7pm, Mr. Cleridis will meet with the President of the Republic, Kostis Stefanopoulos, while half an hour later he will go to the "Maximos Mansion", where he will discuss the progress of Cyprus issue with Prime Minister Kostas Simitis. After their meet ing, Mr. Cleridis and Mr. Simitis will hold a press conference.

Mr. Cleridis will also visit the Archbishop of Cyprus, Mr. Chrysostomos, at the "Annunciation" hospital today, while he will meet with the President of the Greek Parliament Apostolos Kaklamanis. Later tonight, the Prime Minister will hold a dinner for th e President of the Cypriot Republic.

Tomorrow morning, Mr. Cleridis will meet with the honorary President of New Democracy, Konstantinos Mitsotakis, the Executive Secretariat of the Federation of Cypriot Organizations in Greece (OKOE), the President of New Democracy, Kostas Karamanlis, and the President of the Coalition of the Left, Nikos Kosntantopoulos.

The Foreign Ministers participating in the meeting pointed out that the strengthening of cooperation and discussion in the sectors of culture, ideas, economy, and politics, can bear important results as far as the creation of a common code of dealing wit h issues, such as terrorism, military conflicts, the eradication of organized crime and drug smuggling are concerned.

In the margin of the Meeting, Foreign Minister Giorgos Papandreou discussed developments of the Euroarmy issue, with his Spanish counterpart, Josep Piquet.

Mr. Papandreou stressed that it is a very difficult issue on which solutions must be found, solutions Greek and broader European interests. The Spanish Foreign Minister contented himself by saying that he understands the concerns of the Greek government.

The strong Aegean seas did cause one unexpected event. During the usual "family" photograph, the wind blew the Tunisian flag on to the Spanish foreign Minister, without, thankfully, causing him any injury.

The vibration was intense, between 6.1 and 5.8 points on the Richter scale. Specifically, the first estimations came from the Patra labs, which reported a 5.8 earthquake. The announcement of the AUTh mentions a 6.1 R earthquake, Bucharest recorded it at 4.8, Rome at 5.9, while the Strasburg seismological center recorded an earthquake of 6 points on the Richter scale. On their side AUTh seismologists characterized that differentiation is natural and that this has happened before.

No aftershocks are expected however and AUTh seismologist Manolis Scordilis, made the following statement to the MPA: "As a rule, earthquakes of an intermediate depth (those whose epicenter is more than 60 km away from the Earth's crust) are isolated ph enomena, and are not followed by aftershocks".

The earthquake caused an upset in the island's population who chose to spend the night outside. There were some problems with communications, as most residents immediately telephoned family or friends, however the problem was fixed immediately.

The quake also caused damages to supermarkets, the church of St. Pelagia, and a small fire was put out in a DEI electricity substation in Heracleon, which was attributed to a short-circuit.

September 11, 2001, made the effects of an asymmetrical threat visible to the whole world in the most dramatic way, stated the Minister of Macedonia-Thrace, and he added that everyone feels they are within range of an asymmetrical threat, which forms an empire of fear at a geometric rate. In any case, he said, the issue we are discussing is a problem - crime without a home - and consequently dealing with it must be a supranational effort, and must be based on complementary actions of the world community.

Mr. Paschalidis supported that an international collaboration of governments, international organizations and NGOs is necessary in dealing with asymmetrical threats, which are the basic entropy force of all organized social systems.

"We took this initiative with the sorely tried Balkans as a point of reference, appreciating how organized crime that produces asymmetrical threats, stands in the way, slows down and, in many cases, even cancels out the progress of the reconstruction of SE European countries in a transition-accession course into Euro-Atlantic structures", he stressed.

"Existing inequalities in the distribution of wealth did not legalize, do not legalize, and will not in the future legalize political representation of the poor by terrorists. Terrorists target the democratic way of thought and life. Besides, the Septemb er 11 events led to the revealing of dark sides of the planet, where women are not allowed to walk freely, listen to music, go to school. Along with the unequal distribution of wealth, the large deficit in democracy was revealed, while the dominance of fu ndamentalism grows. The powers of blind violence are not the answer to the powers that distribute wealth and knowledge unfairly. The answer to all these issues will only come through politics", said the Minister.

US Ambassador Thomas Miller said that it is encouraging that after a decade of wars, peace is about to reign in Southeastern Europe. There is still a lot to do, but this development is positive. Referring to FYROM he noted that the spectrum of rekindling

the crisis has significantly decreased, and that the country is moving towards elections in the autumn. To those supporting that the US forces will abandon the Balkans, he answered with a statement of US President Bush, "We came to the Balkans together a nd we will leave together". He pointed out that the Greek Presidency of the EU will give priority to Balkan issues, and that the US is in cooperation with the Greek government.

He underlined that the US does not desire to open a front on terrorism on its own, it wants the cooperation of all countries, and the following figures are proof: 161 countries have issued suspensions of payments of $120,000,000 ($50,000,000 concern Euro pean countries) which they consider would have been used to fund terrorist organizations. 150 countries have taken measures against funding of terrorist organizations and Al Qaeda members have been arrested in 60 countries, most of which in Europe. $4.5 b illion will be channeled to Afghanistan in the form of financial aid.

Mr. Miller pointed out that there must be cooperation in fighting against organized crime in SE Europe, which may be connected with terrorism. SE Europe must not become a haven for terrorists. He knows that there are still Mujahedin and some radical elem ents in Bosnia, and the arrests made recently are progress. He underlined that our differencea are what give organized crime a lead, and thus closer cooperation is necessary in order to fight it. He said that the US supports the EU enlargement with the in corporation of Balkan countries.

UK Ambassador David Madden said that England's goals in SE Europe are minimizing the threat of organized crime and promoting peace and stability in the Balkans. Organized crime has economic and political consequences, while corruption reinforces politica l extremism.

90% of the heroin that reaches the UK, comes from Asia through Turkey and the Balkans. The Balkans are the largest source of smuggling, mainly gun running. Moldavia is the main source of human trafficking, while groups of Albanians in Kossovo are connect ed to the trafficking of women.

Mr. Madden noted that there must be closer cooperation with governments and police authorities in SE Europe in order to fight corruption and develop a stable political and social environment. The European Union gave 460 million euro in support of justice

institutions in SE Europe, and 500,000 to help intelligence agencies. Britain will allocate £8,000,000 as financial aid to fight organized crime. In Kossovo and Bosnia, there will be independent police forces.

The Austrian Minister will meet with Minister of Justice Philippos Petsalnikos at 14:30, while the two men will later meet with representatives of the media.

A meeting will follow at the Justice Ministry of the two delegations on the issue of Justice in the sector of informatics.

In the framework of the research, 22 cases of drowning which took place in the 1997-2002 period in the Magnisia prefecture were studied. 87% concerned Greek citizens who in their majority were males (73%) 63% were over 50 years old, while 3 out of 4 case s took place during the summer. The cause of drowning was unknown in 73% of the cases, while in the rest of the cases the cause was falling from high altitude or a different level.

The size of the sample was too small to lead to conclusive results. However, the parties responsible for the research pointed out that there is an increase in the number cases and that the causes related to the circumstances of the accident as well as th e individual that drowned, must be looked into. "The identification of risk factors could help in organizing programmes that would intervene at a certain level to prevent drowning in our area. Knowledge of swimming techniques should be taught at a young a ge, along with basic principles of cardiopulmanory resuscitation by an adult close family member".

Addressing the PASOK parliament deputies, Mr.Simitis gave an emphasis to the decisions that will be made on the issues of major significance for Greece, stressing that the time for decision making has come. He reiterated the government's decision to reje ct the Ankara text on the Euro-army and underlined that Cyprus' EU accession course proceeds well but vigilance and strong political presence is necessary to meet the strategic goal of Cyprus' accession into the European Union.

Mr. Simitis stated that there are no automatic pilots and nothing that was achieved until now in the international scene or in Europe was offered to Greece as a gift.

The Prime Minister stressed that PASOK itself is not in a crisis, underlining that in crisis are all those who do not want PASOK to be united and strong.

He launched an attack on the right-wing main opposition party of New Democracy, stressing that it is the only right-wing party in Europe that does not dare to say its name and added that Greece does not deserve such an opposition.

On the imminent municipal elections, the Prime Minister pointed out that they will have a political character for the local communities but they will not be a referendum. He added that New Democracy underestimates the Left when it thinks that a couple of

compliments will be enough to get the vote of the Left.

They arrived on board a Spanish Air Force transport plane and their reception at the Athens airport was held in top secrecy and under strong security measures.

Meanwhile, government spokesman Christos Protopapas stated that the Palestinians, who will stay in Greece will live in total freedom, while measures will be taken for their protection.

The above were underlined by Minister of Defense Yiannos Papantoniou speaking in the conference on Stability and Assymetrical Threats in Southeastern Europe taking place in Thessaloniki.

Mr. Papantoniou stated that there are regions in southeastern Europe that back terrorism and the activities of extremists. Terrorism can be dealt with through a dual strategy namely, increased security and economic and social development. Greece's contri bution to the preservation of peace and the promotion of the economic and social development is significant. About 1.700 Greek army officers participate in the peacekeeping forces deployed in the Balkans, said Mr. Papantoniou. Referring to the issue of th e Euro-army, Mr. Papantoniou expressed the hope that the existing difficulties will be resolved in a satisfactory manner. This way, the replacement of the NATO force in FYROM by a European military force will proceed.

Mr. Papantoniou stated that the period of nationalist aspirations in the Balkans has ended permanently. The political map will not change and the peoples in the region must learn to live inside the existing borders.

Meanwhile, Mr. Papantoniou visited the Greek Automobile Industry plant near Thessaloniki. On the sidelines of his visit, he stated that the Turkish oceanographic ship "Sizmik" is being watched by the Greek armed forces and for the moment there were no pr oblems.

Regarding the comments on the Greek justice, that are included in the report, he stated that nobody has the right to intervene in the way the Greek justice operates, stressing that it is independent and does its work very well.

Of the stocks trading today, only 32 recorded gains, while the overwhelming majority of 317 had losses, and the value of 24 stocks remained unchanged.

Mr. Chrisochoidis stated that the Geek Police has acquired valuable experience and know-how and referred to the Olympic Games Security Department in which participate all the involved agencies. He also referred to the establishment of an advisory body in

which will participate representatives from 7 countries.

Mr. Chrisochoidis referred to the positive comments included in the US State Department report on Greece's contribution to the efforts against international terrorism and pointed out that Greece cooperates with the United States, the FBI, the European Un ion and third countries.

He said that it is a utopia to believe that an international problem, such as terrorism, can be dealt with by a single country, adding that terrorism can be combated only through cooperation at an international level for the efforts to be more effective.

The above were stressed by the speakers participating in the working team on the Illegal Human Trafficking and Trade in Southeastern Europe held within the framework of the conference on Assymetrical Threats in Southeastern Europe that is taking place in

Thessaloniki.

Psychologist Bonnie Miller, wife of US ambassador Thomas Miller, stated that shelters should be established for the women who are victims of sexual exploitation. Ms. Miller stated that they should be offered medical care and psychological support, whi le a plan should be drawn up on what their future will be after they leave the streets.

Public Order Ministry special adviser Katerina Yiannetou stated that pimps in Greece run a very profitable business with minimal risk and usually they receive small sentences when they are brought to court. Their profits in Greece had an increase of 70% in the period 1991-1996, while at an international level their profits reached 7 billion Euro in 2000.

According to figures provided by international organizations presented by Ms. Yiannetou, every year 1 million children are being forced to prostitution worldwide, while in 2000 a total of 500.000 women were forced to prostitution.

Ms. Yiannetou stated that she is optimistic that with the new bill on human trade promoted by the Ministry of Public Order the phenomenon will be faced more effectively.