The suspects asked for a postponement yesterday, and were given one until today, while another 7 suspects will be taken to court tomorrow to enter their pleas.

All 27 suspects are accused of resisting the authorities, damages, illegal possession - use of arms, while a date of trial was set for two minors accused of participating in the incidents, who were then set free.

Also present at the luncheon were Theodoros and Gianna Aggelopoulou (President of the Athens 2004 Organizing Committee), Nikos Kourkoulos, and Marianna Latsis, on whose yacht Mr. Bush is staying, Dolly Goulandri, academician Grigoris Skalkeas, Foreign Mi nister Giorgos Papandreou and his wife.

Mr. Simitis will meet with US President George W. Bush in Washington on Wednesday, in the framework of the EU-US Summit.

According to information, the former US President urged the Prime Minister to point out all EU-US cooperation issues on Wednesday's meeting, and to speak openly on all subjects.

In statements, Foreign Minister Giorgos Papandreou expressed his appreciation of the work carried out by the South African government in the framework of the African Union, which cooperated with the Greek Presidency of the EU.

Furthermore, he referred to the ties between Greece and South Africa, due to the large Greek community living there, as well as to South Africa's struggles for democracy and human rights.

"On the 2004 Olympics, we thought that if we could revive the truce and if there could be peace for 14 days, then it is possible for there to be peace forever", pointed out Mr. Papandreou.

"We would like to wish you good luck on the Olympics. South Africa will be here with its athletes. We hope to win some medals, but even if they do not, they will definitely enjoy the experience. We hope that this tradition will continue and that there wi ll be a Truce, not only during those 14 days, but forever", stated the South African Foreign Minister.

Isam Bakri Halifa, of the Integrated Chemicals & Development Company, stressed that the cargo of 680 tons of explosives was going to be used for a peaceful cause.

However, there are still questions regarding the amount of cargo, as well as the wandering of the "Baltic Sky" in international waters.

Meanwhile, the ship's 7 crew members will be taken to the Examiner to enter their pleas, after he set charges for possession and transportation of explosives, with intention of delivering them to a third party for illegal activities.

The assistant DA also set charges of instigation against the foreign company that owned the boat, "Alpha Shipping INC", based in the Marshall Islands, and misdemeanor charges against the 7 sailors for violating laws concerning navigation.

as to why the ship had been wandering the Mediterranean for two months carrying the cargo with it. The 7 crew members were taken to the DA.

According to the EU Presidency declaration the Acceding Countries Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Slovak Republic, and Slovenia, and the associated countries Bulgaria and Romania and the EFTA countries,

members of the European Economic Area, declare that they share the objectives of Common Position 2003/444/CFSP on the International Criminal Court defined by the General Affairs and External Relations Council on June 16, 2003, on the basis of Article 15 of the Treaty on European Union. They will ensure that their national policies conform to that common position.

The European Union takes note of this commitment and welcomes it.

The above were stated by Minister of Macedonia-Thrace Giorgos Paschalidis who added that in the rest ten cases of heavily damaged shops, specialists will have to assess the damage before their owners receive compensation.

Mr. Paschalidis reiterated that the main priority during the difficult times of the violent demonstrations was to protect human lives, adding that the material damage caused was limited.

Of the stocks trading today, 237 recorded losses and 81 had gains, while the value of 57 stocks remained unchanged.

The goal of the visit is the best possible preparation of proposals in view of the inter-border program Interreg 3 in order to have full preparedness.

"The EU and the US cooperate on an even wider range of areas, broadening and deepening the transatlantic partnership. Even though relations have recently gone through a period of strain, both sides are firmly committed to demonstrating that the EU and t he US have a relationship that works and produces concrete results with direct positive effects for our citizens, and also jointly take up global and regional challenges," according to the European Commission statement.

The European Commission mentions that international issues such as the Middle East, Iraq, international terrorism, the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, judicial cooperation as well as trade and economic relations between the EU and the U S will be discussed during the upcoming summit.

The summit will begin with a private meeting between US President George W. Bush, European Commission President Romano Prodi and Greek Prime Minister Kostas Simitis.

Discussions are expected to focus on coordinating actions between the two sides on implementing the road map of the quartet (the EU, UN, US and Russia) for peace in the Middle East.

Discussions between the two delegations will follow and will be completed with a working luncheon. The meeting between the delegations will begin with a presentation by the Greek EU Presidency of the results of the Thessaloniki EU Summit, primarily conce rning the EU's draft Constitution and the strategy on common defence and security policy.

Issues such as Iraq, Afghanistan, non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, transport security, judicial cooperation and probably the "Galileo" programme and the issue of the International Criminal Court will also be discussed at the m eetings.

Talks during the working luncheon will centre on trade and economic issues, such as the forthcoming ministerial conference within the framework of the World Trade Organization in Mexico, trans-Atlantic cooperation in the framework of dialogue on economic

markets, research regarding the energy sector and negotiations concerning the air transport sector.

Agreements on mutual judicial assistance and extradition between the EU and the US will also be signed at the US Justice Department on the same day by US Attorney General John Ashcroft and Greek Justice Minister Filippos Petsalnikos.

The suspect case is a 36yearold Chinese marble dealer who comes from a province in China regarded as innocent as far as SARS is concerned. He traveled to Europe on June 15 and visited Frankfurt, Milan, Rome and Graz and on June 21 he arrived in Athens. F rom there, he went to the northern Greek city of Kavala and to another northern Greek city, the city of Dramas where the first symptoms of the disease were detected. Mr. Stefanis stated that the country's health services system was notified immediately as

if it was a positive SARS case and the Chinese man was taken to Thessaloniki's Papanikolaou Hospital where he was placed in a negative pressure chamber.

The initial tests came out positive but due to the gravity of the situation samples will be sent to Hamburg to be reconfirmed. The final confirmation of whether this is a SARS case will come with the detection of virus antibodies in the blood after 15 da ys. The Chinese patient has also presented slight breathing difficulties without a cough, while the x-ray results were negative and the CAT scan results show no pneumonia.

Mr. Stefanis pointed out that in the case of the Chinese businessman the epidemiological background is questionable because the city Xiamen in the province of Fujian was characterized by the WHO as a SARS innocent region for many months now. Also, starti ng today China has been declared innocent region and every restrictive measure against the syndrome has been lifted.

Referring to the way the issue is being handled by the Greek health authorities, Mr. Stefanis stressed that the system operated in an impeccable manner since the beginning in spite of the reassuring evidence.

He also made it known that the Chinese businessman was traveling together with a colleague who was hospitalized for precautionary reasons and has no symptoms of the syndrome.

Responding to relevant questions on the case of the ship that was carrying huge quantities of explosives, Mr. Protopapas said that he is not aware what was the target of the ship's mission and observed that for unknown reasons it was wandering in the Med iterranean for the past month. He also added that there was cooperation and mutual briefing on the issue between the Greek law enforcement authorities and foreign authorities and agencies. The operation got underway when the ship was in Greek territorial waters and it was established that it was not near a populated area to avoid putting human lives at risk.

Mr. Tsochatzopoulos stressed that the Italian EU Presidency undertakes the responsibility to manage issues that were examined by the Competitiveness Council, issues of domestic market, business competitiveness, issues concerning industry, research, and t echnology and the efforts aimed at exploiting research for a more competitive production and economy.

Referring to the priorities of the Italian EU Presidency, Mr. Bitilione stressed that competitiveness is the major issue. He pointed out that the Competitiveness Council should give a long-term overall evaluation to the European Council both from a micro -economic point of view and concerning the capability of the European system to create new jobs and prosperity.

Mr. Tsochatzopoulos will be in Rome on July 12 in the first meeting of the Italian EU Presidency with the Competitiveness Council.

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