Mr. Papandreou stated that he will make every effort to support the Cypriot leadership for a fair and viable solution to the Cyprus problem within the framework of the UN resolutions and pointed out that Cyprus' EU accession is changing the atmosphere ma king it positive.

The President of PASOK met with the political party leaders in Cyprus and with representatives of Turkish Cypriot non-governmental organizations.

Yesterday, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had a telephone communication with Mr. Papandreou, who was in the island of Crete, and discussed with him his thoughts on the Cyprus issue, as well as his next moves.

Mr. Papandreou conveyed the contents of his discussion with Mr. Annan to Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos, with whom he had a meeting in Nicosia earlier today.

Of the stocks trading today, 79 had gains and 219 had losses, while the value of 88 stocks remained unchanged.

In the meeting participated Nikos Athanasakis and Pavlos Geroulanos from PASOK and Thodoris Rousopoulos and Yiannis Adrianos from New Democracy. They are scheduled to meet again tomorrow in an effort to find a formula that will satisfy both sides.

According to the "Metron Analysis" opinion poll, which was the first one held after Giorgos Papandreou was elected leader of PASOK and the first that was held after the latest bad weather that hit most parts of Greece, was presented yesterday by Athens t elevision channel ANT1.

To the question which party they intend to vote for, New Democracy is leading PASOK by 2.7 percentage points. Specifically, New Democracy got 39.0%, PASOK 36.3%, the Communist Party 5.5%, Coalition of Radical Left 3.3%, Democratic Social Movement 1.1%, L A.O.S 1.8% and the undecided 13%.

To the question which party will be the winner in the March 7 elections, New Democracy is leading PASOK by 17.7 percentage points. New Democracy got 49.0% and PASOK 31.3%. Compared to an earlier opinion poll conducted by the same company, the gap between

the two major political parties has closed by 4%.

PASOK leader Giorgos Papandreou (45.2%) is leading New Democracy's Kostas Karamanlis (42.8%) according to the responses to the question, who is the most fit for the post of the Prime Minister.

To the question which party they would trust most to govern the country, PASOK and Mr. Papandreou got 40.5% compared to New Democracy and Mr. Karamanlis with 39.9%.

According to the "Alco" opinion poll, conducted on behalf of the Athens television channel "Alter", New Democracy is leading by 2.9% compared to PASOK based on the responses given to the question, which party the people intend to vote for.

Specifically, New Democracy got 40.8%, PASOK 37.9%, the Communist Party 5.4%, Coalition of Radical Left 3%, the Democratic Social Movement 0.9% and LA.O.S 1.5%. Also, 1.9% responded that they will vote for other political parties and 1.1% that they will cast a blank ballot, 7.2% responded they have not decided yet which party they will vote for and 0.3% refused to give a response to the question.

To the question which party they believe will be the winner in the elections, New Democracy got 49.9% and PASOK 31.5%, while the don't know/don't answer responses reached 4.7%.

To the question which government will be more effective, 39.4% were in favor of PASOK with Giorgos Papandreou as the Prime Minister and 42.5% in favor of New Democracy and Kostas Karamanlis as the Prime Minister.

Mr. White also stated that the impression he has is that the number of aliens entering Greece at the moment has been reduced considerably and this fact offers an opportunity for further improvements. He also stated that he appreciates the efforts made by

the local population to help the illegal aliens in their own way.

Responding to a question by a reporter on the existence of minefields and the issue of repatriations, he stated that he is aware of the problem of the minefields and efforts are being made with Athens to solve it. On the issue of the deportations, he sai d that the UN High Commission for Refugees is interested mainly in people who are refugees or request political asylum and there are no reports of cases of deportations concerning people who are refugees.

Mr. White clarified that refugees come from countries such as Iran, Iraq or Afghanistan, while economic immigrants come from a number of different countries for the purpose to simply improve their living conditions.

Mr. Papandreou stated that the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots have paved the way to a solution.

The PASOK leader also said that after the recent meetings in New York the solution of the Cyprus problem by May 1st is feasible. It can get underway in the following weeks and this opportunity should be seized, stressed Mr. Papandreou.

Referring to the Turkish Cypriots, he expressed the wish that they too will soon be members of the great European family. He also stressed that the Turkish Cypriot citizens have expressed their will for a common homeland and European prospect.